A Madison jury ordered Apple Inc. Friday to pay $234 million in damages to University of Wisconsin, Reuters reported.
The jury had previously found Apple liable for infringing on a 1998 UW patent. According to Reuters, Apple plans to appeal.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation filed the lawsuit in February 2014 over a patent which improves computer chip efficiency. Experts said the technology community across the country has been closely watching the decision.
According to Kali Murray, associate professor of law at Marquette University, the $234 million sum is especially significant when considering the average patent case payout last year was $4.3 million. She said lawsuits involving non-practicing entities, meaning organizations which hold patents but do not directly produce related products, average $22 million.
WARF works to issue and protect UW patents. An independent board of alumni governs the foundation, according to its website.
WARF spokesperson Jeanan Moe declined to comment because litigation is ongoing.
WARF’s status as a non-practicing entity along with its history of patent litigation has led to accusations of being a “patent troll.” Murray said this isn’t a fair assumption, as WARF and other similar entities typically license their patents to companies.
“When people talk about patent trolls … the complexity of non-practicing entity behavior is under remarked,” Murray said. “Non-practicing entities may put burdens on innovation, but you have to look at the individual entities behavior.”
In 2009 WARF recovered $110 million in a settlement with Intel over the same patent, according to Bloomberg.
Details surrounding case proceedings have been scarce since most all of the dockets have been sealed, so it is unclear what arguments either side may have made, Murray said.
