Apple is asking a federal judge to overturn a $5.7 billion verdict in a patent infringement lawsuit brought by Taction Technology over the Taptic Engine used in iPhones and Apple Watches. Here are the details.
A few weeks ago, a jury ordered Apple to pay $5.7 billion for infringing two patents held by Taction Technology, which are related to the Taptic Engine that currently powers haptic feedback across its devices.
At the time, Apple said it strongly disagreed with the jury’s verdict and the damages awarded, which it called “entirely unsupported by the facts.”
Apple stressed its technology was “fundamentally different” from what is covered by Taction’s two patents, and announced plans to appeal.
Today, Apple filed a new motion asking the court to overturn the jury’s verdict, arguing that Taction failed to present sufficient evidence to support any damages award, let alone $5.7 billion, which the company notes is “the largest patent verdict in history, by more than $3 billion.”
Apple adds that before the trial, the court excluded the analysis by Taction’s damages expert due to flaws in how the expert calculated royalties from a previous licensing agreement, and that the expert was later barred from testifying altogether.
Apple also notes that Taction never presented evidence establishing how much its patented technology was worth. Instead, it simply asked jurors to award whatever they considered a reasonable royalty, leaving them “with no choice but to engage in impermissible guesswork on a massive scale.”
Taction told the jury it was “just looking for a reasonable royalty for its contribution,” […], but never offered evidence of what that contribution was worth.
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