Apple has also argued over patents with Samsung over the past several years.
Advertisement
Apple has been trumpeting its capability to innovate and is very protective of its technologies.
Apple is alleged to be using a technology, which is owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s licensing arm, without permission in chips of many of its devices. The patent, which was filed all the way back in 1998, is specifically used to boost processor efficiency. The jury found the computer chip improvement technology was used in the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV and that WARF’s patent was valid, the Washington Post reported.
Noah Berger/Bloomberg Apple faces $862 million in damages following patent lawsuit loss.
According to a recent ruling by the United States district judge William Conley, who is presiding over the case, Apple could be liable for up to $862.4m in damages. The jury unanimously declared Apple guilty of infringing WARF’s patent (U.S. Patent No. 5,781,752), which is for a table-based data speculation circuit for parallel processing.
Apple fought the lawsuit and denied any infringement.
The trial will now proceed to determine the amount Apple will need to pay in damages. In addition to licensing patents developed at those two institutions, WARF supports the University of Wisonsin-Madison through research grants. However, WARF launched a second lawsuit against Apple in September, claiming that the new iPhones and newest iPad model, the iPad Pro, had also infringed the patent. Basically, the patent describes a technique in which a processor-here, Apple’s mobile processors-take a stab at what task it should carry out next before it’s actually requested to do so.
Advertisement
The university has previously sued Intel over use of the same patent, in a 2008 case that was settled for an undisclosed sum out of court.
