Apple Must Pay $145.1 Million In Damages For Infringing On WiLan Patents

Apple has lost an ongoing patent battle against a Canadian patent holding firm called WiLan. WiLan proudly announced that it won a judgement against Apple to the tune of $145.1 million after it was found that the company's iPhone family infringed upon a pair of patents. That is most certainly a fraction of a drop in the massive Scrooge McDuck-like coffers over at Apple, but it is still a large sum of money. 

The patents involved include No. 8,457,145 and No. 8,537,757. That first patent is titled "Method and apparatus for bandwidth request/grant protocols in a wireless communication system." The patent abstract describes a way that bandwidth can be allocated in a wireless communication system using a self-correcting bandwidth request/grant protocol. Another embodiment described in this patent outlines an abridged bandwidth request/grant protocol system that uses padded packets to request a reduction in bandwidth allocation to a CPE.

The second patent in the case is titled "Adaptive call admission control for use in a wireless communication system." This patent has to do with communication systems and systems for implementing call admission control in the systems. Adaptive call admission control determines what CPE to base station calls are allowed at any given time. That system is able to determine what connections should be suspended if less bandwidth than available is committed.

No comments from Apple have been made on the settlement. While the amount may be insignificant to a company like Apple with a $1 trillion market cap, you can bet the decision will be appealed because Apple is loath to give up on patent suits.