Apple Wins New Trial In Wireless Patent Case Following $85 Million Loss
On Friday, tech giant Apple convinced a US appeals court to abandon a jury’s $85 million award to Canadian patent-licensing company WiLAN in a dispute over wireless technology.
The decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is the second occasion in the patent dispute in which a court tossed a multi-million-dollar jury verdict for WiLAN due to issues with its expert testimony.
In a statement, WiLAN said it views the decision by the court as favourable, noting that the court confirmed that Apple infringes and owes damages.
WiLAN was first sued by the tech giant in 2014 as it sought a ruling that it did not infringe patents related to allocating bandwidth in a wireless network. In response, WiLAN claimed that Apple’s iPhone 5 and 6 models both infringed its patents by using the LTE wireless standard.
In 2018, a jury found for WiLAN, awarding it $145 million in damages. While the finding was later upheld by US District Judge Dana Sabraw, the damages award was rejected, with Judge Sabraw ruling it had been based on flawed opinions by WiLAN experts.
Following a retrial in 2020, a new jury awarded WiLAN $85 million, but Apple later urged the Federal Circuit to abandon the new award on several grounds. These grounds included there being issues with a different WiLAN expert’s testimony.
