Patent action: Apple is said to pay $ 700 million due to LTE technology

Due to untreated use of supposedly standard-essential patents in the iPhone, Apple threatens to pay more than $ 700 million to the Texas Mobil Funech holder Optis. The sum is made up of a total of $ 502 million for the use of the technology together for almost 200 million in interest since 2014. The lawsuit was submitted in Great Britain in 2019 and now before the Royal Courts of Justice negotiated in London as part of an appeal (Ca-2024-0006 file number).

There were billions in the room

The Optis Cellular Technology LLC, as the rights holder is called with a full name, according to its own information has patents from the LTE alias 4G area, which Apple uses for its iPhone. As early as 2023, the London High Court decided that Apple had to pay around $ 56.5 million. But the sum has now been significantly increased. In the meantime, it was even a billions and Apple even considered leaving the British market.

Apple wants to contest the decision of the England and Wales Court of Appeal. One is disappointed with the outcome of the procedure, according to the group To the news agency Reuters. OptiS do not produce products and its only business purpose is to sue companies with the patents that the company bought up.

“Clearly incorrect judgment”

Optis in turn informed Macrumors that the appellate court had corrected a clearly incorrect judgment and took steps to set “the real value of our patents for Apple devices”. The Optis technology sets “High-speed connections for millions of devices all over the world “ secure. Optis and Apple argue not only in London, but also in Texas.

In the next step, Apple now wants to call the highest British court (UK Supreme Court) in Great Britain. The success for Optis in Great Britain opens up new legal options in Texas, where it could also be hundreds of million dollars. This case had initially been frozen as long as the British legal dispute ran. However, the responsible London judge no longer sees the problem that both cases run, according to the specialist portal IP fray.