Apple, WiLAN settle patent disputes with license agreement (updated)

Quarterhill

22/03/2022 15:09

(Adds details on settlement, background)
    March 22 (Reuters) - Canadian patent-licensing company WiLAN
Inc said Tuesday that it has signed a new license agreement with
Apple Inc  AAPL.O  related to wireless technology, resolving a
patent fight between the companies just weeks after Apple won an
appeal of an $85 million court win for WiLAN.
    WiLAN's parent company Quarterhill Inc  QTRH.TO  said the
agreement settles all court cases between WiLAN, its subsidiary
Polaris, and Apple in the United States, Canada and Germany. 
    Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed, and the
companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
    Apple sued WiLAN in 2014, seeking a ruling that it did not
infringe patents related to allocating bandwidth in a wireless
network. WiLAN claimed that iPhone 5 and 6 models infringed by
using the LTE wireless standard.
    Apple convinced a U.S. appeals court in Washington, D.C., in
February to reject the $85 million jury verdict against the
iPhone maker because of problems with WiLAN's expert testimony. 
    The decision was the second time the court had overturned a
multi-million dollar verdict for WiLAN in the dispute, after it
rejected a $145 million jury win in 2018.
    WiLAN's primary business is buying patents in fields
including wireless communications, computer chips and the
automotive industry and licensing the technology to companies.
    
    

 (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Blake Brittain in
Washington, D.C.; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Andrea Ricci)
 ((Akash.Sriram@thomsonreuters.com; https://twitter.com/hoodieonveshti;))