DELAWARE: A US federal jury in Delaware has ruled that tech giant Apple must pay over $110 million in damages to Spanish company TOT Power Control for infringing a patent related to wireless communication. The verdict was made public following a patent lawsuit that centred on power-saving technology used in 3G wireless systems.
The jury agreed with TOT Power Control’s claim that Apple’s iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches incorporated wireless chips that violated one of its patents without proper licensing. The technology in question involves how devices manage power consumption in response to changes in radio signal-to-interference ratios—key to efficient battery use in mobile communication.
Alvaro Lopez-Medrano, a Spanish engineer and CEO of TOT, expressed satisfaction with the outcome. “We are thrilled that our fundamental cellular power-saving technology has been validated by a jury in Delaware,” he said. TOT was founded specifically to license the patented inventions developed by Lopez-Medrano.
Apple has stated its disappointment with the ruling and announced its intention to appeal the decision, maintaining that the patents in question were invalid.
While the jury found Apple infringed only one of the two patents involved, the decision marks a significant win for TOT Power Control. The company has also initiated similar lawsuits against LG and Samsung, which are still pending in Delaware.
The outcome of this case could influence how patent licensing is approached in mobile communications, especially concerning older network technologies like 3G, which are still used in many devices globally.
