{"id":53364,"date":"2026-09-29T14:39:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T18:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=53364"},"modified":"2026-09-29T14:39:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T18:39:01","slug":"apple-loses-haptics-patent-case-to-taction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/29\/apple-loses-haptics-patent-case-to-taction\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Loses Haptics Patent Case to Taction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/litigation\/us-jury-says-apple-owes-record-57-billion-haptic-technology-patent-case-2026-09-26\/\">Blake Brittain<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/fingfx.thomsonreuters.com\/gfx\/legaldocs\/gdvzgdqgwpw\/APPLE%20TACTION%20PATENT%20TRIAL%20verdict.pdf\">PDF<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/patents.google.com\/patent\/US10659885B2\/en?oq=us10659885\">patent 1<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/patents.google.com\/patent\/US10820117B2\/en?oq=us10820117\">patent 2<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=49858253\">Hacker News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2026\/09\/27\/apple-hit-with-5-7-billion-verdict-over-taptic-engine-patent-infringement\/\">9To5Mac<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/litigation\/us-jury-says-apple-owes-record-57-billion-haptic-technology-patent-case-2026-09-26\/\">\n<p>A US jury ruled that Apple owes San Diego-based Taction &#x200B;more than $5.7 billion for using its patented  technology to power the haptic feedback in iPhones and Apple Watches. Apple said it would &#x200B;appeal the country&rsquo;s largest such verdict to &#x200B;date.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Apple denied the allegations and &#x200B;said the patents were invalid.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forums.macrumors.com\/threads\/apple-ordered-to-pay-5-7-billion-over-haptic-patent-infringement.2490659\/post-34829019\">neuropsychguy<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/forums.macrumors.com\/threads\/apple-ordered-to-pay-5-7-billion-over-haptic-patent-infringement.2490659\/post-34829019\">\n<p>Taction Technologies has real products (used in various headphones) -- in case anyone is wondering about whether the company is only a patent troll.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>What&rsquo;s complicated about this case is that Apple developed the Taptic Engine before Taction filed its original patent application. Apple&rsquo;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&rsquo;t in Texas) has now found fall within Taction&rsquo;s patent claims.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/articles\/26\/09\/26\/apple-owes-taction-57b-after-losing-haptic-feedback-ip-trial\">Malcolm Owen<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/articles\/26\/09\/26\/apple-owes-taction-57b-after-losing-haptic-feedback-ip-trial\">\n<p>In effect, the jury says that Taction has proven Apple has infringed, but not that Apple did so knowingly.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Apple was accused of buying and reverse-engineering two Kannon headsets that used the technology.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>The $5.7 billion seems so high compared with the $634 million in the Masimo case where Apple seemed a lot more guilty.<\/p>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/23\/apple-loses-masimo-appeal\/\">Apple Loses Masimo Appeal<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blake Brittain (PDF, patent 1, patent 2, Hacker News, 9To5Mac): A US jury ruled that Apple owes San Diego-based Taction &#x200B;more than $5.7 billion for using its patented technology to power the haptic feedback in iPhones and Apple Watches. Apple said it would &#x200B;appeal the country&rsquo;s largest such verdict to &#x200B;date. [&#8230;] Apple denied the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-29T18:39:06Z","apple_news_api_id":"ec270208-2763-44e2-aa89-6e73b8b75f68","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-29T18:39:06Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A7CcCCCdjROKqiW5zuLdfaA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38,2291,31,85,41,209,40],"class_list":["post-53364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple","tag-haptics","tag-ios","tag-iphone","tag-lawsuit","tag-legal","tag-patents"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53365,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53364\/revisions\/53365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}