Back in January 2020, the court ordered Broadcom and Apple to pay the penalty for infringing upon the patents held by Caltech (California Institute of Technology). Following that decision, Apple tried to invalidate one of the copyrights in the case but failed. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit declined to invalidate the patent in question.
There are not too many details on the patent. According to the Reuters and Bloomberg Law, Apple focused on the US Patent No 7,116,710, which covers a “method of encoding a signal.” Apple tried to invalidate the patent, suggesting that the copyright was the invention that came from the standard product design. Reuters says that Apple challenged the patent on the grounds of “obviousness.”
The actual lawsuit covers three patents; these are related to Wi-Fi performance. The total penalty was $1.1 billion, of which Apple is responsible for $838 million. According to the Caltech lawyers, the fine is for Apple’s sales of over 598 million infringing devices in the USA.
According to Caltech, Apple infringed on four patents. The products infringed on patents include iPad, iPhone, HomePod, iMac, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and even the AirPort routers. The jury ruled in Caltech’s favor in January. The board ordered Apple to pay $838 million and Boroadcon to pay $270 million.
Apple’s try to invalidate the patent went in vain. With the latest ruling, Apple still has to pay $838 million to Caltech.