A US jury has ordered the tech giant to pay the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s patent licensing arm about $234 million in damages after Apple incorporated its microchip technology into iPhones and iPads without asking. However, the fine was less than the $400m the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation was demanding. The iPhone and iPad maker announced it would appeal against the ruling.


It is known that it took jurors about three and a half hours to return the verdict in this case in federal court during the second phase of a trial that started on 5 October. The jury was considering whether Apple’s processors used in the iPhone 5s, 6, 6 Plus, and a few versions of the iPad violated the university’s patent. The Foundation sued the tech giant early last year, alleging infringement of its 1998 patent on a “predictor circuit” developed by a computer science professor and his students.

During the investigation, much of the dispute over damages was connected with whether a certain portion of Apple’s chips that were used in devices sold abroad, rather than in the United States, also infringed the patent in question. As a result, the court decided that they did.

Apple tried to greatly limit its liability, claiming before jurors that the Foundation deserved less than even the $110m it had agreed with Intel Corp after suing the latter in 2008 over the same patent. The company pointed out that the patent in question entitled the Foundation to $0.07 per device sold, while it was demanding the $2.74.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation uses some of the received income to support research at the school, providing over $58m in grants in 2014. The court ruled that Apple had not willfully infringed the patent, thus eliminating a chance to triple the damages in the case. However, this is not the end of the story. Actually, back in September, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation launched another lawsuit against Apple. Now it targets Apple’s newest chips used in the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPad Pro.