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Caltech Takes Billion-Dollar Bite Out of Apple, Broadcom for Patent Violations

posted by Fnord666 on Thursday January 30 2020, @03:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the IP-theft dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Apple and Broadcom have been told to pay the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) a beefy billion bucks for ripping off three of the US university's Wi-Fi patents. A federal jury in Cali decided on Wednesday that technology described in the data signal encoding patents owned by Caltech is used in millions of iPhones without wireless chip designer Broadcom nor phone slinger Apple paying the necessary licensing fees. Broadcom supplies radio communications components to Apple for various iThings.

The jury took just under five hours to decide its $1.1bn patent-infringement prize following a two-week trial, with Apple being forced to pick up the bulk of the damages, $837m, compared to Broadcom's $270m. The figures were what Caltech asked for.

[...] Despite the massive award, the news had no noticeable impact on Apple's share price coming a day after it announced better-than-expected results. Broadcom's slipped just a quarter of a per cent.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Thursday January 30 2020, @10:46PM (4 children)

    by RamiK (1813) on Thursday January 30 2020, @10:46PM (#951467)

    Practically speaking I don't think the government should have let Broadcom and their customers use it for free. I mean, sure, in principle, all publicly funded research should be in the public domain. But, which public? Broadcom and Apple aren't paying taxes in the US. They're paying it in Ireland or Singapore or whatever. Caltech, on the other hand, does pay their taxes in the States. So, considering the realities of intellectual properties and the US tax code, the court's decision is likely closest to serving the American public's best interests.

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  • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Friday January 31 2020, @06:55PM (3 children)

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 31 2020, @06:55PM (#951892)
    Sure, but if you run a business and your costs go up, what do you do? You pass it on the customer. Eventually, that costs get passed on to the consumer of the end product. Us.

    • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday February 01 2020, @03:10AM (2 children)

      by RamiK (1813) on Saturday February 01 2020, @03:10AM (#952151)

      You pass it on the customer

      Not in a competitive market.

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      • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Saturday February 01 2020, @04:53AM (1 child)

        by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 01 2020, @04:53AM (#952204)
        If every company's cost increase a similar amount, then yea. No one is going to take a loss. Once one does other will follow.

        • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday February 01 2020, @03:22PM

          by RamiK (1813) on Saturday February 01 2020, @03:22PM (#952345)

          every company

          If and buts. It's not every company. It's Broadcom and its customers. And their competitors will be rewarded where Broadcom was punished.

          No one is going to take a loss

          They'll take less profits and they'll keep the prices the same or watch their customers move to their competitors.

          Honestly they're some of the most profitable and least cost-effective companies that ever existed. And, Apple specifically, does very little good with their profits so every cent you pry off their hands into the public treasury is doing public service.

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