This past Friday a jury ruled that Apple must pay the University of Wisconsin-Madison $234 million after they infringed on their patent. The tech giants used the University’s microchip technology in their Iphones and Ipads without permission and now must pay damages.
The technology that Apple used helped improve the performance of the processors in their devices, and the company has stated that they will appeal the decision but did not comment any further.
The University was initially seeking $400 million in damages and the jury in the case eventually settling at the $234 million number reported by Reuters. The suit was filed in January 2014 and alleged that Apple illegally used the University’s “predictor circuit” in their A7, A8 and A8X processors used in several different versions of their Iphones and Ipads.
The University of Wisconsin has sued over this patent previously in 2008 when they received $110 million from Intel. Apple was arguing that this amount was even too much, but in the end the jury settled on the number they did pending the appeal that Apple has stated they will seek.
Wisconsin recently filed another suit against Apple stating the same infringement on the same patent, but this suit focuses on chips used in even more recent apple products such as the Iphone 6s and Ipad Pro.