Patent Licensing Company WiLan Wins $145.1 Million From Apple in Patent Dispute - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Patent Licensing Company WiLan Wins $145.1 Million From Apple in Patent Dispute

by

A Southern California jury has awarded Canadian patent holding company WiLan $145.1 million in an ongoing patent dispute with Apple, WiLan announced today.

Apple's iPhones were found to infringe on two patents (No. 8,457,145 and No. 8,537,757) related to wireless communications technology.

wilan logo
WiLan, a company owned by Quarterhill, describes itself as "one of the most successful patent licensing companies in the world."

Apple's legal dispute with WiLan has been going on since 2010, when WiLan claimed Apple had violated one of its Bluetooth related patents. In a case separate from today's, WiLan had demanded $248 million in damages from Apple, a battle that it lost in 2013 when a a jury ruled in Apple's favor.

Top Rated Comments

101 months ago


WiLan, a company owned by Quarterhill, describes itself as "one of the most successful patent licensing companies in the world”
Well, don’t they just sound like an upstanding, productive corporate citizen... /s
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
101 months ago
I don't have the same problem others have with patent holding companies since patents are property to be bought and sold. One wonders how many patents they purchase to win the occasional large public jury award. I suspect the rate of return is not crazy big.
Patent holding companies are part of the problem because they are non practicing entities.
AMD makes an x86 chip. intel says “we own the x86 instruction set.”
AMD says “you make chips using x86-64, and we hold the patent.”
An agreement is reached and innovation continues.

Patent holding companies are just lawsuit engines stifling innovation. They would be LESS trouble if bs patents weren’t being awarded, like Amazon’s patent on photographing a subject against a white background (yes, it’s real) in spite of the fact that there is prior art for more than 100 years before Amazon was formed.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Costino1 Avatar
101 months ago
$2 increase per iPhone. Pass it onto the user.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mtneer Avatar
101 months ago
Its interesting that this case came through a court in California - Apple land (albeit Southern California) and not the patent troll district in East Texas. I would have expected the judges to be more receptive to donors and companies who they'd need for reelection in California...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iLilana Avatar
101 months ago
keeping the lawyers employed
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
101 months ago
More fuel for them to keep lawsuits going.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Apple Event Logo

Apple Just Released a New Accessory

Monday May 4, 2026 8:13 am PDT by
Apple today released a new Pride Edition Sport Loop for the Apple Watch. The band features a rainbow design with 11 colors of woven nylon yarns. The new Pride Edition Sport Loop is available to order now on Apple.com and in the Apple Store app in 40mm, 42mm, and 46mm sizes, and it will be available at Apple Store locations starting later this week. In the U.S., the band costs $49. There...
iOS 27 on iPhone 17 1

iOS 27 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Saturday May 2, 2026 8:43 am PDT by
Apple is expected to unveil iOS 27 during its WWDC 2026 keynote on June 8, and there are already many rumored features and changes for iPhones. The first developer beta of iOS 27 will likely be available immediately following the keynote, and a public beta typically follows in July. Following beta testing, the software update should be released to all users with a compatible iPhone in...
Apple Announces 2026 Pride Band Watch Face and iPhone Wallpaper Article 2

iOS 26.5 Coming Soon With These New Features

Monday May 4, 2026 8:40 am PDT by
iOS 26.5 is expected to be released next week, following more than a month of beta testing. The update is relatively minor, but there are a couple of new features and changes across the operating system that we have recapped below. iOS 26.5 lays the groundwork for end-to-end encryption for RCS in the Messages app and ads in the Apple Maps app, and it will include a new Pride wallpaper and a...
Related Apple News: Iphone | Technology | Sport | Education | Entertainment