Apple will need to cough up $300 million from its pocket for LTE patent infringement.
According to a report fromBloomberg, afederal juryin Texas ordered the iPhone maker to pay PanOptis Patent Management and its Optis Cellular and Unwired Planet, for using their patented wireless technology in iPhones and iPad.
Last August, a jury had slappeda $500 million fine on Apple. However, that amount has been reduced in the retrial.
AsThe Registernoted, the wireless patents originally belonged to LG, Samsung, and Panasonic that were later acquired by Optis.
Apple toldThe Vergethat it was disappointed by the outcome of the case and plans to appeal against the judgment:
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Optis makes no products and its sole business is to sue companies using patents they accumulate. We will continue to defend against their attempts to extract unreasonable payments for patents they acquire.
This means, the case is not over yet and we might see a new fine amount after the appeal.
Even if the fine amount remains unchanged, Apple won’t lose its sleepover this money. Just for context, the companyearned $81.6 billion in revenuelast quarter. So $300 million is pocket change.
Story byIvan Mehta
Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.“Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.”
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