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An employee serves a customer inside the Regent Street Apple store during a product launch event in London, September 20, 2019. /VCG Photo
A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday ordered Apple and Broadcom to pay 1.1 billion U.S. dollars to a California university for infringing Wi-Fi technology patents in what is thought to be one of the largest patent verdicts ever.
In a case filed in federal court in Los Angeles in 2016, the California Institute of Technology alleged that Broadcom Wi-Fi chips used in hundreds of millions of Apple iPhones infringed patents relating to data transmission technology.
"While we thank the members of the jury for their service, we disagree with the factual and legal bases for the verdict and intend to appeal," Broadcom said in a statement.
Apple said it plans to appeal the verdict, but declined further comment. The company had said in court filings that it believed all of the university's claims against it resulted from its using Broadcom's chips in its devices, calling itself "merely an indirect downstream party."
Broadcom is a major Apple supplier, deriving about a fifth of its sales from the iPhone maker in its fiscal 2019. Last week Broadcom said it had signed deals to sell as much as 15 billion U.S. dollars worth of chips to Apple.
The verdict awarded CalTech 837.8 million U.S. dollars from Apple and 270.2 million U.S. dollars from Broadcom.
"We are pleased the jury found that Apple and Broadcom infringed Caltech patents," CalTech said in a statement. "As a non-profit institution of higher education, Caltech is committed to protecting its intellectual property in furtherance of its mission to expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education."
(With input from Reuters, AFP)