Apple has been ordered by a San Diego jury to pay $85 million in royalties to Canadian patent-holding company WiLan for infringing patents relating to wireless communications.
Bloomberg reports the two patents in question are related to making phone calls while simultaneously downloading data. Back in August 2018, a different jury decided Apple had infringed the patents and ordered the Cupertino firm to pay WiLan $145 million. However, a retrial was ordered to recalculate the damages.
At a January 2019 retrial, the court agreed with the verdict that Apple had infringed on the patents. However, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw agreed with Apple’s argument that the method WiLan used to calculate the royalty rate was flawed.
Judge Sabraw offered WiLan the choice of accepting reduced royalties of $10 million or prepare for a retrial. WiLan chose another trial.
WiLan’s recalculated royalty figure of $85 million was based on iPhone sales. Although Apple had argued that the patent-holding company hadn’t provided enough evidence to aid the jury in determining the company was entitled to anything, the court disagreed,