AFP Photo / Spencer Platt

A Chinese court has fined Apple Inc $160,400 over a copyright infringement, saying the company sold pirated electronic books via its App Store.

Under the court ruling, Apple must pay compensation to eight Chinese writers and two companies for violating their copyright, China’s Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

The plaintiffs however weren’t satisfied with the ruling as they sought 10 million yuan ($1.6mn) in damages, saying the copyright infringement resulted in large losses.

"We are disappointed at the judgment. Some of our best-selling authors only got 7,000 yuan. The judgment is a signal to encourage piracy," Bei Zhicheng, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters.

Earlier in the year, a group of Chinese authors filed the suit against Apple after they spotted several apps in the App Store containing pirated electronic versions of their books.

Apple pledged it does its best to protect copyright. "We're always updating our service to better assist content owners in protecting their rights," Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said.

The US company has faced a number of lawsuits in China this year. In July, Apple paid 60 million yuan ($9.62mn) to a China’s Proview Technology, to settle a dispute over the iPad trademark in China.

Besides that, Apple is engaged in numerous proceedings with its South Korean rival Samsung as the US company argues that Samsung copied numerous aspects of its smart phone and tablet designs. In August a US court awarded Apple over $1 billion from Samsung because of patent infringement. But in a separate case US District Judge Lucy Koh rejected a request from computer giant Apple to ban the sale of Samsung smart phones.