The Cupertino giant has been sentenced to pay a fine of almost one billion: four patents of the California Institute of Technology violated by Apple
Maxi sting for Apple. The Cupertino-based company was fined a maxi fine of $837 million. This sum will have to be paid to the California Institute of Technology – the famous Caltech of Pasadina – as a form of compensation for the infringement of four different patents on the transmission of the WI-FI. According to the jury of the Los Angeles court that imposed the maxi fine, Apple deliberately “copied” the WI-FI chips patented by Caltech and used them as components for Iphone, Ipad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. The Californian company Broadcom – historical supplier of Apple hardware components – was also involved in the case and was sentenced to pay a fine of 270 million dollars.
Patents violated: Apple condemned to pay
The process that ended today with the maxi fine imposed on Apple had begun in 2016. The California Institute of Technology had sued Tim Cook’s company claiming that the WI-FI chips produced by Broadcom and used by Apple for hundreds of millions of devices had been “copied” from the institute’s patented devices. Hence the allegation of infringement of four different patents. Broadcom and Apple have always denied any allegation, claiming to have developed the technologies in question independently and stressing that they did not create any damage to the inventors of the patents. Apparently, however, the evidence brought by the two hi-tech giants was not enough to convince the jury of the Los Angeles court called to rule on the case. The total amount that Apple and Broadcom will have to pay Caltech is in excess of $1 billion. This is one of the heaviest fines ever imposed in the history of American industry.
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