Apple and its partner Broadcom were sued by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2016. The university claimed that Apple infringed multiple patents related to Wi-Fi intellectual property. In the original ruling, a jury found Apple and Broadcom guilty, validating Caltech’s position in the patent dispute. Broadcom is Apple’s supplier of Wi-Fi modules and was fined $270 million while Apple was fined $838 million.
Since the trial ended, Apple has worked furiously with its legal team to have some of these patent claims invalidated but with little success. Instead, Apple filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Court sided with Apple in part. The ruling itself was not overturned for two of these patent claims but the Court stated that the $1.1 billion damages award was not justified or supported by the evidence. A re-trial will take place regarding a third patent and the amount that should be awarded for the two infringing patents.
Caltech spokeswoman Shayna Chabner said the Pasadena, California-based school was confident that the value of its patents would be “fully recognized” at a new damages trial.
Reuters
The original award of $1.1 billion was one of the highest ever granted in a patent dispute. It’s unsurprising that Apple would appeal this and that the Court would seek to reevaluate the decision.
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