U.S. District Judge William Conley on Monday ordered Apple to pay $506 million in damages for infringing on microprocessor technology intellectual property owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s patent licensing body. The ruling involves the technology used in Apple’s A7, A8 and A8X system-on-chip designs.
The new ruling more than doubles the damages awarded in a $234 million decision reached in October 2015, when Apple’s A7, A8 and A8X system-on-chip designs were found to infringe on a patent held by the university’s patent licensing arm, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. WARF had initially sought $400 million from the Cupertino firm.
Judge Conley said on Monday that WARF was owed the additional damages and interest due to Apple’s continuing to use the technology without a license until the IP expired in December 2016.
Reuters reports Apple is appealing the judge’s ruling, according to court papers. An Apple spokesman did not immediately return a Reuters request for comment.
The lawsuit was related to Apple’s infringement of U.S. Patent No. U.S. 5,781,752 for a “Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer.” WARF’s original patent claims it improves processor performance by predicting what instructions a user will give the system. The same patent was used back in 2008 to force chipmaker Intel into agreeing to a settlement.
WARF had claimed Apple refused to legally license the IP, and later filed a separate lawsuit over the use of the same IP in Apple’s A9 and A9X chips. Apple has denied any infringement, and has sought to make the IP invalid, requesting a PTO review of its validity, which was tuned down.
