Apple will this week try to convince the UK Supreme Court to overturn a $502 million judgment in favor of patent holder Optis Wireless.
As indicated in the Financial TimesThe UK Supreme Court this week addresses a dispute that has lasted since 2019 in US and UK courts, when Optis first accused LTE-equipped iPhones, iPads and Apple Watch models of infringing patents covering 4G network technology.
The current debate in the UK is no longer about whether Apple has infringed the patents, but rather about what Apple should reasonably owe for its use. Patents deemed essential to a wireless standard must be licensed under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, and the two sides remain far apart on the number. The award is structured as a one-time upfront payment spanning from 2013 to 2027, covering Optis’ LTE patents on Apple’s cellular hardware.
This figure changed dramatically during the procedure. The High Court in London had set the bill at $56.43 million in 2023. The Court of Appeal multiplied that figure nine-fold, to $502 million last year. To arrive at that figure, the judges relied on a separate agreement Optis had signed with Google as a benchmark and counted royalties dating back to 2013, well beyond the six-year window favored by the High Court.
Apple wants the justices to reconsider not only the amount of the award, but also how the lower court arrived at it, saying the Court of Appeal “erred in law” and produced a figure it calls “arbitrary.” Optis counters that Apple has spent years avoiding fair payment and using its scale to drive down prices. Qualcomm also opposed the appeal, warning that Apple’s position broke with established licensing standards and risked discouraging future innovation.
The dispute dates back to a pivotal 2020 decision in which the UK Supreme Court held that UK courts can set patent licensing rates globally, even though they can only rule on infringement of UK patents. This decision opened the door for Optis to pursue global damages. After a High Court ruling in 2021 that Apple had infringed two of its patents, with a potential bill of up to $7 billion, an Apple lawyer told the court the company could withdraw from the UK rather than agree to terms it considered “commercially unacceptable”. Apple later renounced this position.
The procedure in the United Kingdom contrasts with the parallel case in the United States, in which Apple is faring much better. In February, a U.S. jury cleared Apple of any violation of any of the five patents in dispute, the latest twist in a case that has repeatedly ended in Apple’s favor.
Two previous awards, of $506 million and $300 million, were each thrown out on appeal. Optis signaled that the U.S. legal battle is not over, saying it expects the district court and Federal Circuit to reverse the verdict.
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