Apple was sentenced to pay a fine of USD 300 million for infringement of 4G/LTE technology patents.
Judges in the US District Court Marshall, Texas, USA, ordered Apple to pay the fine to Optis Wireless for violating the company's patents.
According to Optis Wireless in the lawsuit, Apple uses their technology in the iPhone's 4G/LTE settings, and it violates their patents.
The infringed patent was previously owned by several companies. Of the five patents infringed, two are owned by Panasonic, two by LG, and one by Samsung.
Then Optis bought the technology in 2014 and 2017, and soon they immediately filed a lawsuit regarding the use of the patent.
In 2020, Optis won the case with a compensation value of USD 506.3 million. However, Judge Rodney Gilstrap overturned the decision and ordered a retrial.
The decision was taken because Judge Gilstrap agreed with Apple that the jury's decision, specifically regarding the amount of compensation, was not in accordance with FRAND regulations (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory).
In the retrial, it was finally decided that the amount of compensation to be paid by Apple was USD 300 million, down 40% from the previous compensation value.
For Apple, the value of this compensation is certainly relatively small, because it is only equivalent to its income for two days. Even so, Apple decided to appeal, and considers Optis a patent troll, aka a company that only relies on this kind of lawsuit for its income.
"Optis has no products, and its only business is to sue the company using the patents they collect. We will continue to protect them from their attempts to extort unreasonable fees for the patents they purchased," an Apple spokesperson said in a statement.