On Wednesday, Apple vowed to appeal the $1.1 billion patent-infringement verdict won by CalTech in which it was told to pay $838 million (Broadcom Inc. was hit with the remaining $270 million) and Apple has a long history of fighting — and winning such appeals.
In the past decade, the iPhone maker has evaded a $533 million verdict over controlling digital content, a $506 million judgment over microprocessor technology and a $625.5 million verdict for a way to display documents. In cases Apple hasn’t won, the company keeps fighting — it’s been embroiled in a decade-long fight to avoid paying as much as $1 billion over secure communications to VirnetX Holding Corp.
“They are certainly one of the most targeted entities out there, so it makes sense for them to aggressively defend themselves when they don’t see a path to settlement,” said Jonathan Stroud, chief intellectual property counsel for Unified Patents LLC, which challenges patents used in litigation against its members, including Apple. “Otherwise they’ll be seen as an ATM and continue to be targeted regardless.”
The big-dollar verdicts against Apple are in part because of its size. The $838 million won by CalTech is less than two days’ worth of sales for Apple and is equal to less than 2% of the company’s $55.3 billion net income in fiscal 2019. The big-dollar verdicts against Apple are in part because of its size. The $838 million won by CalTech is less than two days’ worth of sales for Apple and is equal to less than 2% of the company’s $55.3 billion net income in fiscal 2019.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s tenacity is their greatest defense against such litigation. It has a nice dissuasion effect.
“evaded”! Way to go Bloomberg, use a pejorative, makes it clear which side of the case Bloomberg stands. They could have written “reversed”, and it would have made more legal sense without being partial, but hey, it’s Bloomberg.