Japanese engineer sued Apple $ 2.7 million for plagiarism

The Japanese Supreme Court found Apple guilty of patent infringement. The company will pay a fine of $ 2.7 million. During the next trial, the plagiarism charges were not dropped from Apple. When developing an iPod player, the company illegally used the design of the Click Wheel touch circle. The developer of the ring touchscreen is actually 57-year-old engineer Norihiko Saito. Saito also asked to increase the amount of compensation to $ 83.5 million, but the court rejected this claim.

He claims that he patented his development back in 1998. And the company introduced its first iPod in 2001. The Click Wheel block consists of a capacitive touch wheel and ordinary buttons located along its edges at the top, bottom, left and right. Buttons are responsible for calling the menu and control playback. Swiping a finger in one direction or another, the user can scroll through the track lists, change the volume and perform other actions. In modern models of iPod players, the Click Wheel mechanism is no longer used.

Intellectual Property Court of Japan found Apple guilty in 2014. However, the company did not give up and filed an appeal. But in the Supreme Court, Apple could not prove its innocence, the BBC reported, citing the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
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Over the past year, sales of iPods have shrunk by 27%. However, in spite of everything, he “remains the most popular player in most countries,” they say.