Apple asked to pay $300M in LTE patent infringement case

Apple will need to cough up $300 million from its pocket for LTE patent infringement.

According to a report from Bloomberg, a federal jury in Texas ordered the iPhone maker to pay PanOptis Patent Management and its Optis Cellular and Unwired Planet, for using their patented wireless technology in iPhones and iPad.

Last August, a jury had slapped a $500 million fine on Apple. However, that amount has been reduced in the retrial.

As The Register noted, the wireless patents originally belonged to LG, Samsung, and Panasonic that were later acquired by Optis.

The <3 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

Apple told The Verge that it was disappointed by the outcome of the case and plans to appeal against the judgment:

Optis makes no products and its sole business is to sue companies using patents they accumulate. We will continue to defend against their attempts to extract unreasonable payments for patents they acquire.

This means, the case is not over yet and we might see a new fine amount after the appeal.

Even if the fine amount remains unchanged, Apple won’t lose its sleepover this money. Just for context, the company earned $81.6 billion in revenue last quarter. So $300 million is pocket change.