Optis Awarded $300 Million In Second Patent Trial Against Apple
On Friday, a US jury awarded Optis Wireless Technology LLC $300 million in damages after a second patent trial against tech giant Apple.
It was previously found by a jury that Apple had infringed five Optis wireless standard essential patents. Based on this initial verdict, the jury had awarded $506 million in damages. However, Apple called for a retrial on claims that the jury’s verdict was oversimplified. In an order in April, US District Court Judge Rodney Gilstrap upheld the liability finding but called for a new trial to reset the damages, thus abandoning the initial $506 million award.
Judge Gilstrap said that jurors should have considered fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms when deciding the case. However, the jury did not hear the term “FRAND” during the trial and were not presented with evidence demonstrating how the concept would affect a fair damages award.
Consequently, Apple will now pay $300 million to Optis in damages. However, in a statement to Bloomberg, the tech giant said: “We thank the jury for their time but are disappointed by the verdict and plan to appeal. 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.”
