An American university is condemning Apple for patent infringement – Le Figaro

The Californian company was ordered to pay an extra charge of $ 234 million to the University of Wisconsin. The latter had accused Apple of illegally used one of their patented technology.

Apple was sentenced Friday to pay the sum of 234 million dollars to the University of Wisconsin. The trial focused on technology built into the iPhone and iPad, and had opened early last week. The educational institution and research had accused Apple of violating patents he owned. Apple had been found guilty of patent infringement earlier in the week, but the amount of the financial penalty had not been decided. The jury did not follow the request of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), who demanded $ 400 million compensation.

The offending patent, granted in 1998 to the foundation, concerns means of improve the efficiency and performance of computer processors. In a complaint filed early 2014, the University of Wisconsin claimed that these technologies were integrated “unauthorized manner” to device processors released last year by Apple. The use of these technologies has continued in subsequent years, since the university said Friday in the find the A7 processors, A8 and A8X iPhone 5s (released in 2013), 6 and 6 Plus (released in 2014), as well as several models of iPad.

Apple had argued during the trial that the patent at issue was invalid, an argument that the jury rejected. “The jury recognized the pioneering work on processors that took place on our campus,” praised his side in a statement Carl Gulbrandsen, who heads the university’s Research Foundation (WARF), hailing “a very good news for inventors “and the recognition of” hard work “of university researchers. WARF had already attacked the Intel 2008 for fraudulent use of the same technologies. The processor manufacturer had ended up paying $ 110 million to the university.

An Apple spokeswoman contacted Friday declined to comment on the verdict, but confirmed that the group was planning to appeal. The group itself has filed lawsuits for patent infringement against several major players in the technology sector. One of the most followed showdown is the one who opposes the US courts in South Korean group Samsung, its biggest rival in the market for smartphones and tablets.

(with AFP)