Apple to pay Wisconsin $234m in patent case

Apple is being forced to pay Wisconsin University $234m in damages after the tech giant allegedly infringed on one of the university’s processor patents.

The amount is less than Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the tech transfer arm of Wisconsin, was seeking earlier in the week ($400m), and substantially less than was reported last week ($862m).

The legal dispute was over Apple’s A7, A8, and A8X processors, found in the smartphone developer’s latest range of devices. The processors allegedly infringe on a 1998 patent held by Wisconsin which can boost performance of the chips. WARF brought a similar lawsuit over the same patent against Intel in 2008 where it won $110m.

WARF has also launched a second case against Apple on the same patent, but for Apple’s A9 and A9X processors.

Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of WARF, said: “This is a case where the hard work of our university researchers and the integrity of patenting and licensing discoveries has prevailed. The jury recognized the seminal computer processing work that took place on our campus.  This decision is great news for the inventors, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and for WARF.”