Jury rules Apple must pay WiLAN $85M for patent infringement

A jury in San Diego has ruled that Apple must pay Quarterhill Inc.'s WiLAN $85 million in royalties for infringing patents in a retrial of a case from 2018.

The case dates back to 2014, when WiLAN put Apple on notice for infringing on six patents with its iPhone and iPad products. The intellectual property included in WiLAN's accusation belonged to the same patent family as a separate patent at issue in a Florida case pending at the time, Apple argued in its bid for a finding of non-infringement.

Both patents, one for a "Method and Apparatus for Bandwidth Request/Grant Protocols in a Wireless Communication System" and another for "Adaptive Call Admission Control for Use in a Wireless Communication System," targeted Apple's iPhone.

In 2018, Apple had been ordered to pay WiLAN over $140 million for the infringements. In 2019, the payout had been slashed to $10M, after WiLAN and Apple could not agree on what damages were owed.

The court offered WiLAN a choice of either accepting reduced damages to the amount of $10 million, or to prepare for a new trial, one that would only determine the amount of damages owed, since the infringement has been upheld. WiLAN opted for a new trial, in which Apple was found to owe WiLAN $85 million in royalties — significantly less than the $145 million of the 2018 trial.

According to Bloomberg, Licensing accounted for more than half of Quarterhill's sales in the first nine months of 2019.

Apple will likely appeal the verdict. AppleInsider has reached out to both Apple and parent company Quarterhill Inc. for comment.

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31 Comments

sunman42

said about 4 years ago

If Apple still used paperclips, which I'm certain they don't, this would barely equal the noise on the paperclip budget.

lkrupp

said about 4 years ago

sunman42 said:

If Apple still used paperclips, which I'm certain they don't, this would barely equal the noise on the paperclip budget.

And if Apple DID still use paperclips a paperclip non practicing entity would be suing them over it.

dant

said about 4 years ago

For once, it would be nice to see Apple try and not be the bully in the school yard and actually act responsibly and ethically for a change. These patents are used by all the phone providers. They are ground breaking patents. They have all signed licenses. The only one fighting was Apple. Now they have lost twice in court, to two jury's, and they still want to appeal? I mean, come on! The technology is not Apples, its been proven. Pay the damages of $85 million for the i phones 6 & 7 and then pony up for what you owe for iphones 8,9,10 and 11 too. (Yup, they now owe for the phones they have created since the case was initially filed, that they admitted ALSO infringed.) Then sign a license to 2023 to when the patents expire. And before anyone tries and spins the patent troll narrative, these patents were invented by the two guys who built the company Wilan, in the first place. They were never acquired from someone else. Just because you can tie things up endlessly in court doesn't mean you should. In fact its shameful and cowardly and arrogant. Apple has hundreds of billions of dollars stored off shore -- avoiding taxes -- and they still won't pony up for the technology they have used to build that mountain of cash. Time to do what is right. Pay for what you are responsible for. For a change.

StrangeDays

said about 4 years ago

dant said:

For once, it would be nice to see Apple try and not be the bully in the school yard and actually act responsibly and ethically for a change. These patents are used by all the phone providers. They are ground breaking patents. They have all signed licenses. The only one fighting was Apple. Now they have lost twice in court, to two jury's, and they still want to appeal? I mean, come on! The technology is not Apples, its been proven. Pay the damages of $85 million for the i phones 6 & 7 and then pony up for what you owe for iphones 8,9,10 and 11 too. (Yup, they now owe for the phones they have created since the case was initially filed, that they admitted ALSO infringed.) Then sign a license to 2023 to when the patents expire. And before anyone tries and spins the patent troll narrative, these patents were invented by the two guys who built the company Wilan, in the first place. They were never acquired from someone else. Just because you can tie things up endlessly in court doesn't mean you should. In fact its shameful and cowardly and arrogant. Apple has hundreds of billions of dollars stored off shore -- avoiding taxes -- and they still won't pony up for the technology they have used to build that mountain of cash. Time to do what is right. Pay for what you are responsible for. For a change.

That’s just, like, your opinion, man.

The patents sound like typical BS software patents — patents on ideas, rather than implementation, which is written code, which is protected by copyright. The notion that companies can patent abstract ideas in software is unsound to begin with, and will result in never-ending litigation. Ideas are free, written code is not. Seriously doubt Apple lifted their code.

dant

said about 4 years ago

Actually no, strange days. Its the courts opinion. TWICE. It's also the opinion of all the other companies who have ALREADY signed licenses to the technology. Just because Steve Jobs said "we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas" doesnt mean its okay. In fact it puts Apple in a class by itself. And not a very good one.