Apple pays $700,000 for bloggers’ legal fees

Apple Computer has been ordered by the Santa Clara County court to pay $700,000 to bloggers it charged with violating California’s trade secrets law. The company had claimed that bloggers weren’t real journalists and thus were not entitled to First Amendment rights. An Appeals Court strongly sided with the journalists and the court has now ordered Apple to pay for all costs associated with their defense, including an 2.2 times multiplier assessed as a penalty.