Microsoft settles Caltech lawsuit over Wi-Fi technology

March 13 (Reuters) - Microsoft (MSFT.O) has agreed to settle a patent infringement lawsuit brought by the California Institute of Technology, which earlier won a billion-dollar jury verdict against Apple (AAPL.O) and Broadcom (AVGO.O) over some of the same Wi-Fi patents.

Microsoft and Caltech told, opens new tab the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas on Tuesday that they had settled the case in principle and asked to pause the proceedings while they finalize an agreement.

Details of the settlement were not immediately available. A spokesperson for Caltech declined to comment, and representatives for Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Caltech accused Microsoft in 2021 of infringing Wi-Fi related patents with devices including its Surface tablets and laptops and Xbox video game systems. Microsoft denied the allegations, said that the patents were invalid and argued that it had licenses to them.

The Microsoft lawsuit followed a 2020 California jury verdict that Caltech was entitled to $1.1 billion in damages for patent-infringing technology in Broadcom Wi-Fi chips used in Apple devices.

A U.S. appeals court threw out the verdict in 2022 and ordered a new trial to determine the proper amount of damages. Caltech, Apple and Broadcom settled their dispute last year.

Caltech has also sued HP Inc (HPQ.N) and Dell (DELL.N) in Texas for infringing its Wi-Fi patents in cases that are still ongoing.

The case is: California Institute of Technology v. Microsoft Corp, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 6:21-cv-00276.