Caltech ends lawsuit accusing Apple of patent infringement of Wi-Fi chips

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has reached an agreement to end a patent lawsuit against Apple and Broadcom over Wi-Fi chips, according to a filing in California federal court, reports Reuters.

The court filing says that the company wishes to “hereby request and stipulate that all claims and counterclaims… be dismissed with prejudice.”

“In addition, Caltech respectfully requests that all counterclaims asserted by Apple also be dismissed with prejudice, with each party bearing its own costs and attorneys’ fees,” it continues. “Broadcom does not oppose this request.”

Dismissing the case “with prejudice” means it can’t be refiled.

In 2016, Caltech accused Apple of selling various iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models, along with other Wi-Fi products, that incorporate IRA/LDPC encoders and/or decoders and allegedly infringe on its patents. The university sought monetary damages. 

In January 2020, a California federal jury ruled that Apple and Broadcom infringed three Caltech data transmission patents with Wi-Fi chips used in hundreds of millions of iPhones and other devices, awarding the university over $1.1 billion in damages. Apple was ordered to pay $837.8 million, and Broadcom was hit with a $270.2 million verdict, according to lawyers for Caltech. 

Apple and Broadcom appealed. However, in April, the Federal Circuit rejected Apple‘s bid to overturn a patent board decision upholding Caltech’s patent for wireless data transmissions. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled in favor of Caltech in 2018 after reviewing U.S. Patent No. 7,116,710 while Caltech’s parallel infringement case proceeded in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.