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31 May 2016Patents

Apple sued for Wi-Fi patent infringement by Californian uni

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has sued Apple for allegedly infringing four of its patents centring on Wi-Fi chips developed by the university.

According to  The Verge, Caltech filed a lawsuit at the US District Court for the Central District of California on Thursday, May 26.

Caltech alleges that Apple has “knowingly used” and advertised gains from the university’s patented technology, which has been used in the iPhone 5 “onwards”.

It is hoping to recover damages and stop the sale of the products.

The 802.11n and 802.11ac standards cover wireless transmission between a router and device, such as a smartphone or laptop.

Caltech says the patents are “integral” to the two standards.

The four patents, US numbers 7,116,710; 7,421,032; 7,916,781; and 8,284,833, were granted between 2006 and 2012.

Broadcom is also targeted in the lawsuit because it creates Wi-Fi chips used in Apple products including the MacBook and iPhone. Caltech argues that Broadcom is one of Apple’s “biggest” customers as it represents 14% of its revenue.

In another lawsuit with a university, in October last year Apple was ordered to pay $234 million in damages after it was found to have an infringed a patent owned by the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

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