Apple and Broadcom have been ordered to pay the California Institute of Technology a total of $1.1 billion for infringing on Caltech’s patents related to Wi-Fi transmissions.
Bloomberg reports Apple has been ordered to pay $838 million, while Broadcom will have to pay $270 million. However, Apple plans to file an appeal.
Caltech filed a 2016 lawsuit against Apple and Broadcom, accused Apple of selling Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch models, as well as other products that use Wi-Fi technology, incorporating IRA/LDPC encoders and/or decoders and thereby infringing upon Caltech’s four asserted patents in question.
Caltech said that Apple was infringing on four of its patents with the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple TV, Airport routers, and Apple Watch. The patents in question included U.S. Patent No. 7,116,710, U.S. Patent No. 7,421,032, U.S. Patent No. 7,916,781, and U.S. Patent No. 8,284,833.
Apple and Broadcom denied any infringing on the patents and filed countersuits against Caltech, urging the court to invalidate the patents in question. Apple said Caltech had waited too long to collect damages, as they had waited six years after the 802.11n wireless standard was published. The Cupertino firm also argued Caltech doesn’t make, use, or sell products that practice the claims in the contested patents.