A jury verdict that awarded $145 million to licensing firm WiLAN after its victory in a patent dispute with Apple was slashed to $10 million by a California jury.
In August, a federal jury in California awarded Canadian patent licensing company WiLaN $145.1 million in damages against Apple for patent infringement. The San Diego jury decided that versions of the iPhone infringed two WiLaN patents relating to wireless communications technology.
The lawsuits concern Apple’s alleged use of WiLAN’s 4G and LTE technologies found in most of Apple’s products. WiLan was established in 1992 to develop and commercialize technology that made low-cost, high-speed wireless networking a reality.
The company has seen a failed lawsuit attempt against Apple previously. In October 2013 a Texas court ruled in Apple’s favor in a suite WiLAN brought against it in 2011 over wireless technology. WiLan claimed that these companies infringed its U.S. Patent No. RE37,802 related to CDMA and HSPA and U.S. Patent No. 5,282,222 related to Wi-Fi and LTE. The Texas court didn’t think any infringement was involved.
