A Texas federal judge has denied Apple a new trial in its fight against a Smartflash patent infringement lawsuit; however, he also upheld a decision to toss US$532.9 million in damages that were originally awarded to Smartflash, reports AppleInsider (http://tinyurl.com/nonsll5).

U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap nixed Apple's request on the basis that the jury's verdict was supported by adequate evidence and thus shouldn't be overturned, according to court documents (http://tinyurl.com/qdzm9px). He also defended the validity of the disputed patents, and dismissed an Apple allegation that the court made a mistake omitting a jury instruction about prior art.

On Feb. 26, 2015 — one day after Apple was ordered to pay an US$532.9 million settlement to Smartflash for alleged patent infringement, the Texas-based patent licensing firm — the company sued Apple again over the same patents. The new lawsuit covered Apple products that were introduced after the original case was filed.

These include the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2. Smartflash licenses its patents, but doesn’t make products itself.