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Court Orders Apple to Pay $506M in A-Series Chip Patent Dispute

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.

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.