Apple Loses Haptics Patent Case to Taction
Blake Brittain (PDF, patent 1, patent 2, Hacker News, 9To5Mac):
A US jury ruled that Apple owes San Diego-based Taction more than $5.7 billion for using its patented technology to power the haptic feedback in iPhones and Apple Watches. Apple said it would appeal the country’s largest such verdict to date.
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Apple denied the allegations and said the patents were invalid.
Taction Technologies has real products (used in various headphones) -- in case anyone is wondering about whether the company is only a patent troll.
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What’s complicated about this case is that Apple developed the Taptic Engine before Taction filed its original patent application. Apple’s original Taptic Engine was different from what Taction later patented. However, Apple subsequently redesigned the Taptic Engine, and those later designs incorporated a combination of suspensions and ferrofluid damping that a jury (in California -- this isn’t in Texas) has now found fall within Taction’s patent claims.
In effect, the jury says that Taction has proven Apple has infringed, but not that Apple did so knowingly.
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Apple was accused of buying and reverse-engineering two Kannon headsets that used the technology.
The $5.7 billion seems so high compared with the $634 million in the Masimo case where Apple seemed a lot more guilty.
Previously:
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>The $5.7 billion seems so high compared with the $634 million in the Masimo case where Apple seemed a lot more guilty.
Maybe an IP thief patent infringer recidivist like Apple should be held to a higher standard. Three strikes is good enough for a car thief, perhaps Apple should have an arbitrary multiplier applied to their payouts each time they get done for this.
>The $5.7 billion seems so high compared with the $634 million in the Masimo case where Apple seemed a lot more guilty.
Usually, damages are calculated by some amount per infringing device. The damages in the Masimo case were based only on sales of infringing Apple Watch models. This includes sales of infringing iPhones.
