Apple must pay $506M for infringing university’s patent

Enlarge / Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation will be able to collect more than $500 million in royalties on Apple products that used the A7, A8, and A8X chips. That includes the iPad Air, pictured here in 2013. (credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A judge has ordered Apple to pay $506 million to the research arm of the University of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, sued Apple in 2014, accusing its A7, A8, and A8X chips of infringing US Patent No. 5,781,752, which claims a type of "table based data speculation circuit." The following year after a trial, a Wisconsin jury found (PDF) that Apple had infringed the '752 patent and that it should pay $234 million in damages.

Yesterday's order (PDF), signed by US District Judge William Conley, more than doubles that amount. Conley awarded WARF $1.61 per unit for many of the iPad and iPhone devices that use the accused chips, up until the entry of judgment in October 2015. He also tacked on $2.74 per unit as a royalty payment covering the period from the date of judgment through December 26, 2016, which is when the '752 patent expired.

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