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(Reuters) – Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) Inc on Friday persuaded a U.S. appeals court to throw out a jury verdict requiring them to pay $1.1 billion for infringing California Institute of Technology patents related to Wi-Fi technology for iPhones and other Apple devices.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the award, one of the largest in U.S. history for a patent case, was not justified by the evidence, and ordered a new trial.
A Los Angeles federal jury found in 2020 that millions of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and other devices using Broadcom chips infringed Caltech’s data-transmission patents.
The jury awarded Caltech $837.8 million from Apple and $270.2 million from Broadcom.
Apple is a major purchaser of Broadcom’s wireless chips, and the companies agreed in 2020 to continue their relationship into 2023.
Broadcom said in a regulatory filing in December that nearly 20% of its revenue last year came from Apple sales.
Apple and Broadcom raised several issues on appeal, including the court’s understanding of the patents, its decision to disallow some defenses, and the amount of damages.
CalTech, based in Pasadena, California, has also sued Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Samsung Electronics (OTC:SSNLF) Co, Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) Inc and HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) in Texas for allegedly infringing the same patents. Those cases are pending.
