Top Defense Results: The Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation

Apple Inc.'s iPod upgrade significantly improved the device, an Oakland jury decided in a conclusion that spared the Cupertino-based company as much as $1 billion in liability in an antitrust trial.

The December verdict was a victory for attorneys with Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP who represented the company.

In the class action, plaintiffs alleged that two verification codes implemented during a product upgrade prevented iPods from playing music bought from outside of iTunes. The Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation, CV05-37 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 3, 2005).

The jury, however, found that the overall upgrade was a product improvement, saving Apple from having to pay any damages.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, who represented Apple customers and retailers, had tried to weed out the verification codes from the overall upgrade, but were denied that opportunity by U.S. District Judge Yvonne G. Rogers

"It was a tough case that dealt with some very technical issues, but at least we got a jury to consider some of these issues," said Patrick J. Coughlin, of counsel with Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP.

Coughlin said there will be no appeal, based on factors including the lengthy time it took this case to wend its way through the courts - almost eight years.

"We waited and looked at it and made the determination that in light of how long [the litigation] had taken and how it had been pared down, an appeal would be a long shot," he said.

Apple's attorneys cannot comment on the record, according to lead counsel William A. Isaacson of Boies Schiller.

Coughlin said if he had to argue the case over again, he would have tried to simplify it a little more.

"I tried to do that as much as I could, but they were a sophisticated jury and they rendered their decision."

- Deirdre Newman