Apple fined $ 300 million for iPhone functionality



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Apple Inc has been asked to pay $ 300 million in royalties after a retrial in a patent litigation over wireless technology used in iPhones and other products, in a global battle with a company that claims it owns patents on the LTE cellular standard.

The Texas jury said PanOptis Patent Management and its two subsidiaries, Optis Cellular and Unwired Planet, owed that amount as a lump sum to cover past and future use of the technology. It comes after an arbitration panel ruled on $ 506.2 million last year.

The case focused only on how much Apple should pay, as U.S. District Court Judge Rodney Gilstrap upheld the jury’s liability determination in April, but ordered a new trial for damages, claiming which the jury should have been allowed to examine whether the royalty claim was compliant. the condition for licensing basic patents on “just, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms”.

“We thank the jury for their time, but we are disappointed with the verdict and plan to appeal,” Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., Said in a statement.

Optis does not manufacture any products and its only job is to prosecute companies that use the patents they collect.

“We will continue to defend against their attempts to obtain unreasonable payments for their patents,” the company said.

The Texas experiment is part of Optis’ offer to raise up to $ 7 billion from the iPhone maker. A UK court decided to set a global royalty rate, which prompted Apple lawyers in July to threaten the company with withdrawing from the UK market if it was forced to pay a “commercially unacceptable” amount.

The Texas case involves technology the company says is needed to implement the 4G communications standard, with Optis claiming that Apple’s 4G smartphones, watches and tablets used its patented technology.

Although Optis does not manufacture any products, the five patents in the Texas case were initially issued to Panasonic, Samsung and LG. Panasonic and LG transferred two patents to Optis Cellular in 2014, while Samsung transferred the patent to Unwired Planet in 2017, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database.

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