U.S. District Judge Orders Apple to Pay $506M to University in Infringement Spat

Apple Inc was ordered by a US District Judge William Conley to pay $506 million to the University of Wisconsin’s Alumni Research Foundation for infringing on a patent related to computer processing technology. The technology company is guilty of violating a patent filed by the university’s licensing arm. The new ruling doubles the amount Apple has been ordered to pay, from the previous decision issued against the technology giant in January this year.

The damages to be paid by Apple are $272 million higher than a $234 million federal jury ruling in October 2015. According to William Conley, a Madison-based judge, said Apple owes additional damages along with interest because Apple continued to infringe on the patent until it expired in December 2016.

The additional amount acts to cover damages and extra costs and also as penalty for Apple. The very first complaint against Apple claimed deliberate infringement. 

The Wisconsin University cited the “752 patent property” in its own U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filings. The suit also claimed that Apple consistently refused to requests made by the former to license the IP. On the other hand, Apple is said to contest the ruling and apply for an appeal.

Back in 2014, WARF sued Apple alleging some processors found in some versions of the iPhone infringe on a patent describing a “predictor circuit,” which improves processor performance by predicting what instructions a user will give the system.

The original patent for the predictor circuit was obtained back in 1998 by Gurindar Sohi, the university’s computer science professor, along with three of his students. The patent describes the exact feature that the Apple A-series chipsets use. The lawsuit alleges that the technology is used by Apple in the A7, A8 and A8X chipsets. WARF had initially demanded $400 million from Apple for the infringement.

In 2015, WARF brought another lawsuit against Apple, alleging chips in later versions of the iPhone infringe the same patent. Judge Conley said he would not rule on that case until Apple has had an opportunity to appeal the 2015 jury verdict.

Moreover, the technology behemoth denied any infringement during a 2015 jury trial and argued that the patent is invalid. It also urged the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to review the patent’s validity, but the agency rejected that requests.

The University has also opened a second lawsuit against Apple, citing the same patent infringement used in its latest A9 and A9X chips too. The same U.S Judge has declined to announce a decision on the second case until the appeal made by Apple in the 2015 lawsuit has arrived at a verdict.

Historically speaking, it is not the first time that WARF has dragged a tech company to court over the patent. In fact, Intel lost a similar lawsuit against WARF over the same chipset issue back in 2008.

Meanwhile, by 4:35 AM GMT -4, Apple Inc traded 0.43%, or 0.65, to $152.74. It opened in $151.80, with a session high of $153.84, and a session low of $151.80. Its market capitalization was $806.01 billion and its P/E ratio was 17.86 and its dividend yield was 1.65%.

Want to get updated on the latest news about the stock market? Subscribe now at Trade12. We will let you know the latest happenings about forex, commodities and economies.