[JURIST] The Tokyo District Court [official website, in Japanese] on Thursday ordered Apple [corporate website] to pay 330 million yen, (USD $3.35 million) for patent infringement involving the iPod music player’s click wheel controller. The patent is disputed [IANS report] by Japanese inventor Norihiko Saito, whose company applied for the patent in 1998. Presiding Judge Teruhisa Takano stated that the 1998 patent covers the technology that Apple adopted for its iPod in Japan in 2004. The money damages awarded to Saito are significantly less than the $10 billion yen demanded [Dow Jones report] in the initial complaint.

Apple has been embroiled in patent litigation in courts around the world. In June the Intellectual Property High Court in Tokyo [official website] affirmed a lower court’s ruling [JURIST reports] in favor of Samsung in their own patent dispute with Apple. Also in June the US International Trade Commission (ITC) [official website] issued a limited import ban [JURIST report] and a cease-and-desist-order against Apple for AT&T models of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G, and iPad 2 3G after finding the devices violated a patent held by Samsung Electronics. In March a UK court ruled in favor of Apple in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Samsung involving three patents [JURIST reports] in connection to data and information transfer technology that Samsung alleged Apple infringed. In February the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] rejected a request [JURIST report] by Apple to ban sales of Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone based on allegations of willful patent infringements. In January the District Court of The Hague [official website] ruled that the designs of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, 8.9 and 7.7 do not infringe [JURIST reports] designs patented by Apple.