Apple Dodges $300 Million Patent Penalty As Appeals Court Cites Jury Instruction Errors In LTE Dispute With Optis

Apple Inc. AAPL avoided a $300 million patent infringement penalty on Monday after a federal appeals court ruled that faulty jury instructions violated the tech giant’s constitutional rights in its dispute with patent licensing firm Optis Cellular Technology.

What Happened: The three-judge panel vacated both the original $506.2 million verdict from 2020 and the reduced $300 million damages award, citing procedural errors in the Eastern District Court of Texas proceedings, reported The Register.

The court found that jurors were improperly instructed to issue a single decision on five separate LTE cellular technology patents rather than evaluating each claim individually.

The legal battle between Apple and Optis began in 2019, spanning multiple jurisdictions with six separate trials and several appellate hearings in Britain alone. In 2021, a Texas judge initially upheld a jury’s decision ordering Apple to pay $300 million in royalties to PanOptis Patent Management and its Optis units for LTE cellular standard patents.

The appeals panel determined that combining all five infringement claims into a single jury question violated Apple’s Seventh Amendment right to unanimous jury findings on each patent claim. The court noted that both Apple and Optis had requested separate evaluations for each patent.

Why It Matters: Apple’s legal challenges extend beyond patent disputes, as the company was fined approximately $570 million by the European Union in April for violating the Digital Markets Act by restricting app developers from informing users about alternative sales channels.

The company also faces ongoing Apple Watch patent disputes with Masimo Corporation over pulse oximetry technology.

The matter returns to the district court for a third retrial, though Apple emerges in a stronger position given the appeals court’s findings on patent validity and procedural issues. Optis remains confident in its patents’ validity, stating that Apple continues infringing critical connectivity technologies used in millions of devices, according to the report.

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