We hear of so many frivolous and petty lawsuits against (and from) Apple, it’s a bit weird to see one actually connect like this. A serious technical suit filed in 2007 alleged that Apple willfully violated a patent owned by Opti Inc.

Apple attempted to convince the jury that the patent was invalid, but that apparently amounted to a confession once all the cards were down. The jury found Apple guilty and the company was handed a fine to the tune of $19 million and change. That’s not going to put a dent in their cash reserves, but I think we can all agree that anyone would rather keep the $19 mil rather than throw it away. Well, at least justice was served.

[image courtesy of Ars Technica]