Jury awards WiLAN $145m in Apple dispute

A Californian jury has awarded Canada-based WiLAN $145 million in damages in an ongoing patent infringement dispute with Apple.

On Wednesday, August 1, a jury at the US District Court for the Southern District of California awarded the damages for Apple’s infringement of US patent numbers 8,457,145 and 8,537,757, both of which relate to wireless technology.

Apple sued the Canadian IP licensing company back in 2014, in a lawsuit which sought a finding of non-infringement and invalidity of a number of patents (including the ‘145 and ‘757 patents).

“WiLAN is in the business of asserting patent infringement claims and suing companies for patent infringement,” claimed Apple at the time.

US-based Apple also alleged that WiLAN’s business model “revolves around threatening to initiate litigation against technology companies to extract licensing fees” and that WiLAN has used this approach on over 275 companies.

In response, WiLAN said that Apple was the only major company that had not respected its IP and its “contribution to the growth and success of the wireless industry”.

Four years later, the jury has now awarded WiLAN damages and US District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the parties to conduct mediation before the submission of any post-trial motions.