Apple still facing $800 million hit as Caltech patents upheld
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has refused to invalidate patents owned by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), dashing Apple’s hopes to escape liability for more than $800 million in damages.
In a decision issued yesterday, March 5, the Federal Circuit summarily approved several decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) from 2018, which rejected Apple’s request to cancel the Caltech patents.
In January, Caltech won a $1.1 billion damages award against Apple and Broadcom, who were deemed by a California jury to have infringed the patents. The patents at issue cover data transmission technology, which Caltech said was infringed by Broadcom Wi-Fi chips used in Apple devices.
Apple had previously tried to have the patents in question invalidated through inter partes reviews by the PTAB, but its efforts were rebuffed by the appeal board in 2018.
The technology giant appealed against the PTAB rulings to the Federal Circuit, hoping to prove that the Caltech patents should be invalidated on grounds of obviousness.
That would have provided an escape from its share of the $1.1 billion verdict. But, in a brief ‘rule 36 judgment’, the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s refusal to invalidate the patents.
The appeals court didn’t explain its reasoning or attach an opinion to the judgment.
Caltech originally sued Apple and Broadcom for infringing the patents in 2016. A jury at the US District Court for the Central District of California awarded Caltech $1.1 billion in damages—$837.8 million from Apple, and $270.2 million from Broadcom.
“As a non-profit institution of higher education, Caltech is committed to protecting its IP in furtherance of its mission to expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education,” Caltech said in a statement following the jury verdict.
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