After Apple was slapped with an LTE patent infringement, the company will now be needing to cough up $300 million. Although this was not the original amount and the penalty was already dropped from $500 million, the penalty is still hefty nonetheless.
Apple vs Optis Patent Lawsuit
According to Bloomberg, a particular federal jury in Texas had ordered the popular iPhone maker to pay PanOptis Patent Management as well as its Optis Cellular and Unwired Planet for using the company's patented wireless technology on the Apple iPhones and iPads. Just last August, 2021, a jury had initially slapped a $500 million fine on Apple.
After the retrial of Apple's case, however, the fine was then dropped from $500 million down to $300 million. The Register noted that these wireless patents originally belonged to Samsung, LG, and Panasonic. They were then later on acquired by Optis.
Optis Sues Companies
Apple reportedly told The Verge that the company was actually quite disappointed by the outcome of this particular case and even plans to appeal once again against the current judgement. Apple noted that Optis makes no products and is actually in the sole business of just suing companies that are just using patents that they have been able to accumulate.
Apple noted that the company will now continue to defend themselves against their attempts to be able to extract unreasonable payments made for patents that they have acquired. This means that the case is still not over yet and that there might even be a new fine amount depending on the outcome of the appeal. Altpass LLC has also sued Apple in the past over use of certain features like passwords, password creation, face ID, and more!
Despite the fine amount remaining unchanged, Apple still won't be losing any sleep over the money that is asked for in penalty. To provide more context, Apple had just earned a whopping $81.6 billion in revenue over last quarter. This means that the $300 million is technically just pocket change for the company.
The five patents that are in question are listed below:
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Optis Asking for 'Royalty Rate'
As provided by the article by The Register, Optis reportedly claimed that Apple was not willing to provide what they noted was a fair "royalty rate" for the intended patented designs. Quite interestingly enough, Optis is also already pursuing Apple elsewhere. The company is no stranger to lawsuits as the company has also been pursued by another company Bell Northern Research due to alleged patent infringement by Apple.
Optis is pursuing Apple in the High Court of England where the company now hopes to set a global royalty rate for its very own patents. In July 2021, Apple even threatened to pull directly out of the UK if it was ordered by London judges to cough up and pay a "commercially unacceptable" amount.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian B.
