Cellular Communications Equipment LLC v. Apple Inc.

Apple, Inc. must pay a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp, a large patent licensing company, $22.1 million after a federal jury found that it had willfully infringed a cellular network-related patent. An Eastern District of Texas jury found that Apple Inc.’s iPhones and iPads infringe a patent on wireless communication technology owned by a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp.

Plaintiffs, Cellular Communications Equipment, filed suit in 2014 alleging that Apple’s mobile devices infringed six patents. At the time of trial, only one patent remained. The patent at issue (U.S. Patent No. 8,055,820) was acquired by Cellular Communications Equipment and covered technology for managing the resources used to send data over communications network and increasing the efficiency of communicating.

The jury said that Apple did not prove with clear and convincing evidence that any asserted claims of the patent are invalid as obvious or based on improper inventorship. Since the jury found that Apple’s infringement was willful, the judge could ultimately award plaintiff Cellular Communications Equipment LLC three times the damages, or $66.4 million.

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