Apple gets $234 million damages ruling dismissed in legal battle with U of Wisconsin

Apple convinced a federal appeals court on Friday to throw out a $234 million damages award in favor of the University of Wisconsin’s patent licensing arm for infringing the school’s patent on computer processing technology, reports Reuters.

The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. said no reasonable juror could have found that Apple’s processors infringed the patent, based on evidence presented during the liability phase of the 2015 trial. It said Apple deserved judgment as a matter of law in the case brought by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

In 2015, a U.S. jury ordered Apple to pay the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s patent licensing arm more than $234 million in damages for incorporating its microchip technology into some of the company’s iPhones and iPads without permission.

In 2013, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation filed a lawsuit saying that Apple’s A7 processor infringed a university-developed patent that improves “the efficiency and performance of contemporary computer processors. The patent (number 5,781,752) is for a “table based data speculation circuit for a parallel processing computer.” 

Apple was accused of implementing the patent’s technology in the company’s 64-bit A7 processor that powers the iPhone 5s, iPad Air, and iPad mini with Retina display. The complaint alleged that Apple was aware of the patent’s existence because it is cited in several newer patents issued to the Cupertino, Calif. company.