Cupertino infringed on two patents with iPhone tech

Aug 2, 2018 09:19 GMT  ·  By

It’s not a secret that Apple is the preferred target of patent trolls across the world, so every once in a while, various companies make the headlines for suing the Cupertino-based tech giant for allegedly infringing on some of their technologies.

Only that today, a dispute between Apple and a company called WiLAN ended badly for the iPhone maker, as a judge ruled that it must pay $145.1 million in damages for infringing on two different patents.

Specifically, Apple allegedly violated US patent Nos 8,457,145 and 8,537,757 which describe a “method and apparatus for bandwidth request protocols in a wireless communication system” and an “adaptive call admission control for use in a wireless communication system,” respectively.

“In a trial verdict rendered on August 1, 2018 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California a jury awarded WiLAN $145.1 million in damages against Apple Inc. for infringement of WiLAN's US patent Nos 8,457,145 and 8,537,757,” WiLAN proudly announced in a short press release today.

Patent violation lawsuits

Apple’s legal dispute against WiLAN started in 2010, so it took nearly eight years for the judge to issue a final rating. On the other hand, WiLAN also filed Apple in 2013, claiming that it also violated a different networking patent, but the lawsuit has already ended, with Cupertino found not guilty.

Apple hasn’t released a statement on this ruling, but the company doesn’t typically comment on lawsuits, so don’t expect any word in this regard to be shared anytime soon.

In the meantime, Apple is also involved in a series of other lawsuits against other companies and organizations across the world accusing it of patent violation, and there is a good chance that the number of such disputes would increase significantly in the coming months, especially as new iPhones are just around the corner.