The famous company could be facing fines of no less than 2 million in a patent dispute.
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Representatives for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the university’s licensing arm, sued Apple in January 2014 after its offer to license the patent to Apple for a fee was turned down. The WARF lawsuit alleged that Apple illegally used the patented technology in its A7, A8 and A8X processors, which have been used in iPhones and iPads, the article said. The said patent relates to improving the efficiency of the said processors.
The US patent in question, number 5,781,752, describes a “Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer”. “Intel ended up paying the University a $110 million lump sum to license the patent, court documents show”. While WARF has a reputation as a patent troll, courts have sided with it in the past, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out, though the process could take quite a while.
WARF sued Intel Corp.in 2008, but the two agreed to settle in 2009 the day before the case went on trial. Interestingly enough, the American tech giant attempted to convince the US Patent and Trademark office to examine the patent’s validity but the bid was rejected in April. The jury concluded that microchip technology that Apple had been using in many of its electronic devices actually belonged to the University of Wisconsin. The trial will now determine exactly how much Apple has to pay. In the case the court proves intent, and then the amount of damages can increase substantially. Apple also faces a second lawsuit covering the A9 and A9X processors used in the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, as well as the iPad Pro. WARF says it believes the new processors violate the same patent.
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Apple could get even more bad news.
