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Apple loses patent lawsuit to University of Wisconsin, faces hefty damages

Mr_Troll

Bad news for apple?

 

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Apple Inc could be facing up to $862 million in damages after a U.S. jury on Tuesday found the iPhone maker used technology owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's licensing arm without permission in chips found in many of its most popular devices.The jury in Madison, Wisconsin also said the patent, which improves processor efficiency, was valid. The trial will now move on to determine how much Apple owes in damages.Representatives for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.WARF sued Apple in January 2014 alleging infringement of its 1998 patent for improving chip efficiency.The jury was considering whether Apple's A7, A8 and A8X processors, found in the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus, as well as several versions of the iPad, violate the patent.Cupertino, California-based Apple denied any infringement and argued the patent is invalid, according to court papers. Apple previously tried to convince the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to review the patent's validity, but in April the agency rejected the bid. According to a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge William Conley, who is presiding over the case, Apple could be liable for up to $862.4 million in damages.He scheduled the trial to proceed in three phases: liability, damages, and finally, whether Apple infringed the patent willfully, which could lead to enhanced penalties.WARF used the patent to sue Intel Corp in 2008, but the case was settled the following year on the eve of trial.

Last month, WARF launched a second lawsuit against Apple, this time targeting the company's newest chips, the A9 and A9X, used in the just-released iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, as well as the iPad Pro.

 

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/13/us-apple-wisconsin-patent-idUSKCN0S72T320151013?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2015/10/14/university-wisconsin-apple-battle/1

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I am not sure I even understand what patent they broke

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I am not sure I even understand what patent they broke

Apple pretty much sues everybody If another product even remotely resembles their product, so Im glad their finally getting screwed themselves.

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I'm lost. So the patent was for improving the efficiency of ARM chips? How the fuck is that something you can patent? I may have read this wrong, but if Im right this is patent trolling. Although Apple kind of needs a taste of its own medicine.

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Apple pretty much sues everybody If another product even remotely resembles their product, so Im glad their finally getting screwed themselves.

 

thanks for not answering my question.... ><

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I am not sure I even understand what patent they broke

 

Something about improving chip efficiency, I suppose some architectural tweak. Not sure myself. 

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Something about improving chip efficiency, I suppose some architectural tweak. Not sure myself. 

 

Strange thing to patent, is that not something Apples architecture experts could not have stumbled upon themselves?

 

I know fuck all about CPU architecture 

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thanks for not answering my question.... ><

Well the ACTUAL answer to your question is in the text :P

Qoute: 1: used technology owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's licensing arm without permission in chips found in many of its most popular devices

Qoute: 2: which improves processor efficiency

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Yeah, the richest company can handle a billion dollars lol

 

 

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Well the ACTUAL answer to your question is in the text :P

Qoute: 1: used technology owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's licensing arm without permission in chips found in many of its most popular devices

Qoute: 2: which improves processor efficiency

 

No I know that, I wanted something more specific "improves processor efficiency", how do you patent that, since the CPUs are of Apples own designs etc

 

Seems crazy to patent such a none specific method of speeding up ARM chips, unless there is something very specific that no other company could do

 

Like could an engineer not figure out this processor improvement without stealing anything etc?

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No I know that, I wanted something more specific "improves processor efficiency", how do you patent that, since the CPUs are of Apples own designs etc

 

Seems crazy to patent such a none specific method of speeding up ARM chips, unless there is something very specific that no other company could do

 

Like could an engineer not figure out this processor improvement without stealing anything etc?

They most likely stole something specific about the processors architecture that cannot be found In any other processors, If they did It on purpose or not Im not sure, but they doing It either way breaks the patent.

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Strange thing to patent, is that not something Apples architecture experts could not have stumbled upon themselves?

 

I know fuck all about CPU architecture 

With how complex cpu architecture is I really doubt that they would stumble upon the exact way the patent is.

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I'm lost. So the patent was for improving the efficiency of ARM chips? How the fuck is that something you can patent? I may have read this wrong, but if Im right this is patent trolling. Although Apple kind of needs a taste of its own medicine.

Yes you're reading it wrong. The patent's purpose was for improving the efficiency of ARM chips, not the idea of improving the efficiency itself, it might be some design/architectural patent.

 

Just like Asetek has a patent on waterblocks with pumps, with the purpose of cooling CPUs (or whatever under it), they have a patent on how to do it, not a patent on cooling CPUs.

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With how complex cpu architecture is I really doubt that they would stumble upon the exact way the patent is.

 

true

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Found the patent

 

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5,781,752.PN.&OS=PN/5,781,752&RS=PN/5,781,752

 

 

"A predictor circuit permits advanced execution of instructions depending for their data on previous instructions by predicting such dependencies based on previous mis-speculations detected at the final stages of processing. Synchronization of dependent instructions is provided by a table creating entries for each instance of potential dependency. Table entries are created and deleted dynamically to limit total memory requirements.

"
 
 
YES ... or something

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No I know that, I wanted something more specific "improves processor efficiency", how do you patent that, since the CPUs are of Apples own designs etc

 

Seems crazy to patent such a none specific method of speeding up ARM chips, unless there is something very specific that no other company could do

 

Like could an engineer not figure out this processor improvement without stealing anything etc?

It would appear that even though the overall design of the chip is apple's certain parts of that design can be stolen or reused. They don't start from scratch each time I would think. Likely they took what was in the patent and used with as part of their chip design figuring no one would actually find out.

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It would appear that even though the overall design of the chip is apple's certain parts of that design can be stolen or reused. They don't start from scratch each time I would think. Likely they took what was in the patent and used with as part of their chip design figuring no one would actually find out.

 

yeah that makes sense, 

 

its annoying when patents get in the way of progress, but equally the inventor has a right to their own invention

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OMG the amount of legalese in that one post. :)

 

 I know right, its like reading Klingon or something

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yeah that makes sense, 

 

its annoying when patents get in the way of progress, but equally the inventor has a right to their own invention

It seems this one is something that should not get in the way since it would make sense to just do a licensing agreement. Intel has already agreed on paying up for their unfair use of it now apple is going to pay up too. I wonder how many other chip makers have the same thing in their chips and if they don't what the difference is that allows them to do the same thing.

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What does that even mean? Every chip maker improves chip efficiency. 

 

 

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What does that even mean? Every chip maker improves chip efficiency. 

 

its a specific way of improving chip efficiency, not improving chips in general

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 I know right, its like reading Klingon or something

The only reason why the write legal stuff like is to force people to hire lawyers every time they make a case.

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The only reason why the write legal stuff like is to force people to hire lawyers every time they make a case.

 

Of course

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