Apple must pay $85m in WiLAN damages, rules judge
Apple will have to pay $85 million for infringing patents owned by Canadian IP licensing company WiLAN after a California federal court upheld the penalty.
A jury at the US District Court for the Southern District of California issued the $85m verdict in January, after Apple was found to have infringed two WiLAN patents.
The patents relate to voice over LTE, a 4G wireless communication technology used in numerous Apple iPhone models.
Apple challenged the damages verdict with a motion calling for it to be scrapped, as well as for a new trial.
According to Apple, WiLAN’s evidence was “speculative and arbitrary”, and its arguments flawed.
But Judge Dana Sabraw was unmoved, remarking that the court had already “addressed these issues numerous times in this case, and declines to rehash the parties’ arguments or its own analysis here”.
“Suffice it to say, Apple has not met the standard for either judgment as a matter of law or a new trial and/or remittitur on damages,” the judge wrote.
According to Sabraw, Apple failed to prove that the jury lacked a “sufficient evidentiary basis” for the verdict.
The January verdict shaved $60 million off the amount originally awarded to WiLAN in 2018.
A retrial was held after Apple challenged the methodology behind the original $145m award in favour of the Canadian licensing firm.
The latest order brings the seven-year case closer to a definitive end, with the court still to issue a formal order on pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.
The dispute saw sharp exchanges between the two companies. In response to WiLAN’s 2013 complaint, Apple attacked the Canadian company’s business model, which it said “revolves around threatening to initiate litigation against technology companies to extract licensing fees”.
In response, WiLAN said that Apple was the only major company that had not respected its IP and its “contribution to the growth and success of the wireless industry”.
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