Apple will appeal $234 million judgment

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A8 chip
Apple's A8 processor violated University of Wisconsin's patent.
Photo: Apple

The University of Wisconsin-Madison defeated Apple in its patent lawsuit today, after a U.S. jury ordered the iPhone maker to pay the university $234 million in damages for infringing on patented microchip technology in the iPhone and iPad.

Apple’s bill for the infringement is significantly less than the $862 million fine the company was originally facing. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) had high praise for the verdict, saying it was improtant to protect the school’s inventions.

“This decision is great news,” said WARF Managing Director Carl Gulbrandsen in a statement provided to Reuters.

Apple declined to comment on the case, but did say that it plans to appeal the verdict.

It took the jury about 3.5 hours to reach their verdict in the federal course case that began on October 5th. The ruling found that the A7, A8 and A8X processors violated the foundation’s 1998 patent for a predictor circuit. The technology was originally developed by computer professor Gurindar Sohi.

WARF sued Intel over the same patent back in 2008 and settled the lawsuit for just $110 million. Apple’s legal team argued that WARF deserved less than that (about 7 cents per iPhone sold), but the jury awarded the university more than double that.

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