According to a report from Reuters this evening, a federal jury in California has found Apple guilty of infringing on two patents held by Canadian intellectual property company WiLan. The jury awarded WiLan $145.1 million in damages, the report says…
In a statement released by WiLan, it says the patents in question relate to wireless technology used by the iPhone. One is for a “method and apparatus for bandwidth request protocols in a wireless communication system,” while the other is for “adaptive call admission control for use in a wireless communication system.”
Apple has yet to comment on the today’s decision from the San Diego jury. Meanwhile, WiLan – which is a Quarterhill company – touts itself as “one of the most successful patent licensing companies in the wold,” with the goal of helping “companies unlock the value of intellectual property by managing and licensing their patent portfolios.”
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.
Of note, this isn’t the first time WiLan and Apple have gone at it in court. In October of 2013, Apple was found not guilty of infringing on other wireless networking technology patents.
WiLan seems to thrive purely on the money made through lawsuits such as these. We noted in 2013 that the company had come upon hard times financially and was attempting to turn around its misfortune with successful lawsuits against companies with deep pockets, such as Apple.
We’ll update this post if Apple comments on the outcome of this case.
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