As far as intellectual property lawsuits go, Apple has quite a record as a winning plaintiff. In 2012, Apple’s rival in the smartphone space, Samsung, was ordered to pay $1 billion to the iPhone-maker—though the two companies will meet in court again to renegotiate what the final penalty would be—for design copyright violations. But, it seems, all along it has been a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
A US court has just found Apple guilty of patent infringement and the company could face a penalty of $862 million—for perspective, the company reported a $10.7 billion profit in the third quarter of its fiscal this July. The licensing arm of the University of Wisconsin-Madison sued Apple for using chips technology developed by researchers at the varsity (including two Indian-origin engineers) in its A7, A8 and A8X processors in violation of a patent held by the former. The smartphone major had earlier tried unsuccessfully to get the patent struck down by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Considering Apple puts design on a high pedestal, it had accused Samsung of violating copyright it held for “rounded edges” on smartphones. Turns out, the iPhone-maker could have been a serious IPR violator itself, making off with something that the average smartphone-user would perhaps value more than rounded edges—a faster processor. Of course, Apple’s going to appeal the verdict in higher courts in the US, but the controversy does knock its rather valued brand down a notch or two.
