Law360, New York (October 13, 2015, 4:29 PM ET) -- A Wisconsin federal jury decided Monday that Apple Inc.'s iPhones and iPads infringe a Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation computer processor patent, which could result in a damages award of nearly $400 million.
Apple products including the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini were found to have infringed a single WARF patent. (Credit: AP)
The jury returned its verdict following a liability trial that began Oct. 5 and will now move on to the damages phase in which WARF, the patent manager for the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is seeking damages of $398.7 million, according to a source familiar with the case.
In addition to finding that Apple products including the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini infringed a single WARF patent, the jury found that Apple had not proven that the patent is invalid.
WARF had earlier been seeking up to $862.4 million in damages, but it notified U.S. District Judge William M. Conley Monday that it was withdrawing its claim for damages from the time before the suit was filed in January 2014 "to further streamline the case."
Representatives of Apple and WARF declined to comment on Monday's verdict.
The suit maintained that Apple cited WARF's U.S. Patent Number 5,781,752 in its own patent applications and thus knew that the university's technology existed. The Wisconsin researchers were awarded the patent in July 1998, according to the suit.
The patent covers a predictor circuit, which streamlines the way a processor works by predicting what instructions a user will give the system based on data from previous use and the machine's previous guesses. The same technology appears in Apple’s A7 processor, which is used in the Apple products at issue, the suit says.
Apple filed a petition last year challenging WARF's patent under the America Invents Act's inter partes review program, but the Patent Trial and Appeal Board decided in April not to review the patent.
Judge Conley ruled last month that WARF could not tell the jury about the PTAB's decision, writing that "any probative value of this evidence is substantially outweighed by the risk of unfair prejudice, as well as the risk of jury confusion."
The patent-in-suit is U.S. Patent Number 5,781,752.
WARF is represented by Morgan Chu, Gary Frischling, Jason Sheasby and Alan Heinrich of Irell & Manella LLP and Jennifer L. Gregor of Godfrey & Kahn SC.
Apple is represented by William F. Lee, Bryan S. Conley, Lauren B. Fletcher, David C. Marcus, Andrea J.W. Jeffries, Derek Gosma and Mark D. Selwyn of WilmerHale and Catherine Cetrangolo of Cetra Law Firm LLC.
The case is Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation v. Apple Inc., case number 3:14-cv-00062, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that WARF was seeking $862.4 million in damages, based on an order by the judge earlier in the case, but the figure is now lower as a result of WARF’s decision Monday to withdraw its claim for presuit damages. The error has been corrected.
