Jury orders Apple to pay $234 million for infringing university patents

Apple lost a patent case on Monday, when a federal jury in Wisconsin found that the smartphone giant infringed a patent that originated at the University of Wisconsin, and is now held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).

That ended the liability phase of the trial, and the judge overseeing the case decided that damages should be decided in a separate phase. The damages trial concluded today when the jury came back with its decision that Apple should pay $234 million for its infringement.

The verdict papers aren't yet available in the public courts database, but the $234 million figure has been reported by both Reuters and the Wisconsin State Journal. Court documents filed earlier in the case suggested Apple could have been asked for up to $862 million in damages, but the ultimate ask was $400 million, or about $2.74 per infringing device, according to Reuters. Apple said it should only be made to pay 7 cents per device.

The 7 cents per figure is extrapolated from a 2008 settlement between WARF and Intel, which was revealed to be $110 million. That settlement figure was secret until this week, but was revealed to the jury during damages arguments.

The jury's award, $165 million less than what WARF sought, didn't seem to damper the mood on WARF's legal team. They were "all smiles and handshakes," according to the news reports.

Reuters reported that the jury deliberated for about three and a half hours before reaching the damages verdict. There is no chance to increase the damages figure due to willfulness, since US District Judge William Conley ruled yesterday that Apple's infringement was not willful.

Universities have become increasingly litigious with their patents in recent years, especially since Carnegie Mellon won a huge $1.17 billion verdict in 2012, which was greatly reduced on appeal. WARF has been an aggressive enforcer of its patents long before that, though. A Reuters analysis found that the foundation has filed 33 lawsuits against 31 different defendants since 2000. That includes the enforcement of several controversial patents on stem cells, which some public interest groups decried as an obstacle to researchers.