Earlier this week, Apple was found guilty in an ongoing patent lawsuit initiated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the time, Apple was said to potentially owe the university’s patent licensing arm $862 million in damages. Today, however, Reuters reports that the jury in the case, after much deliberation, has ordered Apple to pay $234 million in damages.
The main reason for the large cut in the damages Apple will pay is that U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled that Apple had not willfully infringed on the patent. Had Conley ruled the other way, however, Apple would have been faced with closer to the $862 million amount in damages.
Apple says that it will appeal the ruling, as expected. In 2008, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation sued Intel over the same patent. The two parties settled outside of court, however, with Intel paying $110 million to the university. Although, Apple believes that it owes far less than even that $110 million amount.
The lawsuit centers the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s 1998 patent that handles improving chip efficiency. WARF claims that Apple’s A7, A8, and A8X chips, found in the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and various iPads, all violate the patent. Apple initially asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to review the validity of the patent to begin with, but its request was denied.
Even though this case appears to slowly be wrapping up, WARF last month launched a second lawsuit against Apple arguing that the A9 and A9X chips found in the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, and iPad Pro infringe upon the same patent.
