Apple fined $234m after university patent dispute

Apple has been ordered to pay $234 million in damages after it was found to have an infringed a patent owned by the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the licensing arm of the university, had been seeking almost $400 million.

At the centre of the dispute is US patent number 5,781,752, which covers a process of improving of chip efficiency.

The ‘752 patent is called “Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer” and was issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 1998.

The infringing products were Apple’s A7, A8 and A8X chip processors used in its iPhone 5 and 6 models as well as some iPad devices.

WARF sued Apple in January in 2014 at the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

The trial was divided into two stages.

On Tuesday, October 13, the jury at the district court ruled that the ‘752 patent was valid and had been infringed. A day later, a trial started in order to determine damages.

WARF requested $398.7 but on Friday, October 16, the jury awarded it $234 million.

“This is a case where the hard work of our university researchers and the integrity of patenting and licensing discoveries have prevailed,” said Michael Falk, general counsel at WARF.

He added: “The jury recognised the seminal computer processing work that took place on our campus. This decision is great news for the inventors, the university and WARF.”

Last month, WARF filed another challenge against Apple alleging infringement of the same patent.

At the centre of that claim is Apple’s A9 and A9X chips which are used in its iPhone 6S and iPad Pro products.