Filing a lawsuit against Apple in 2007, Opti Inc. accused the Cupertino-based company of willful infringement on a "predictive snooping" patent. The patent in question outlines a method of more efficiently delivering data among the CPU, memory and other devices. Acknowledging that a similar technology had been employed, Apple argued that the patent should be declared invalid due to prior art and also cited a Supreme Court ruling whereby obvious patents can be overturned should they fail a test of "obviousness".

Unfortunately for Apple, the jury rejected their argument and found the company guilty of willful patent infringement, awarding Opti $19,009,728 as a reasonable royalty for infringement. While this is hardly a fatal blow in Apple's pocket, having just reported their strongest non-holiday quarter in the company's history, one must wonder why they're so heavily targeted for patent infringement.