Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
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Title: Apple ordered to pay $502 million to Optis by UK courts

Date: Thu, 01 May 2025 15:30:53 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-order...

Apple has been ordered to pay a $502 million lump sum payment by UK courts
for infringing on patents owned by Optis Cellular Technology LLC, based out
of Texas. This particular company is not an aggrieved innovator, but instead
what is referred to as a ΓÇ£patent troll.ΓÇ¥ ThatΓÇÖs a company that buys up
niche patents with the specific intent to seek damages for infringement from
lucrative defendants like Apple, and itΓÇÖs not their first time being
awarded damages from the Cupertino giant.

This lawsuit was originally filed through London courts in 2019 over patents
governing cellular technology, including 4G, that Optis says was improperly
used in iPads and iPhones. In 2023, LondonΓÇÖs High Court ruled in OptisΓÇÖ
favor and ordered Apple to pay just over $56 million plus interest to settle
the dispute, inclusive of past and future sales that featured the offending
tech. Optis successfully argued that this was far too low a sum, leading to
the half-a-billion-dollars in damages ordered today.

The iPhone maker has found itself in court over patent infringements time and
time again in the past ΓÇö not only with patent trolls, but also fellow
industry stalwarts. The ability for enormous tech companies to (allegedly)
infringe on design or utility patents and pay pennies on the dollar for the
damage done years later seems to be a feature, not a bug.

Apple has unsurprisingly responded by promising to appeal the court's
decision, to which Optis insisted it will fight to defend its intellectual
property.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-
tech/apple-ordered-to-pay-502-million-to-optis-by-uk-courts-
153053338.html?src=rss

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