Apple ordered to pay WiLan $85 million over patent infringements

Patent infringement cases typically don’t go away all that quickly, so it’s not unheard of to watch a company that’s suing Apple in some way or another pop back up into the news years later after the initial complaint.

Take WiLan, which is owned by Quarterhill Inc., for example. The company has popped up on Apple’s radar a couple of times in the past, including all the way back in 2013 when the company, based out of Canada and has been described as a “patent troll” in the past, tried to extract money from Apple over a variety of patent infringement accusations.

Apple won that trial, though. It didn’t get so lucky in 2018.

In August of that year, Apple was ruled to pay $145.1 million to WiLan for infringing on two different patents owned by the smaller company. However, this latest ruling is a retrial of that one, and U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw set it aside. The new ruling? Apple still has to pay WiLan, but it’s only $85 million this time around (via Bloomberg).

The two patents owned by WiLan in this case relate to simultaneously downloading data and making a phone call. Back in 2018, after the initial amount was awarded to WiLan, Apple argued that the company was using an incorrect method to determine damages based on iPhone sales. The District Judge Sabraw agreed with Apple, which led to the initial amount getting set aside and this new amount being what Apple has to pay now.

This case is probably not done quite yet, as one can imagine Apple is going to continue to argue the point. But for now it looks like the company will be forking over $85 million to WiLan for infringing on a couple of different patents.