Apple faces $862 million bill after losing patent case

Published: Oct 14, 2015 4:01 a.m. ET

A federal jury ruled Apple Inc. infringed on a University of Wisconsin patent when developing processors for some recent iPhones and iPads, the latest in a string of disputes over the technology undergirding smartphones.

The jury in U.S. District Court in Madison, Wis., found that the university’s 1998 patent on improving efficiency in computer processors is valid and that Apple AAPL, +0.17% illegally incorporated the patent’s technology in processors that help power some iPhones and iPads.

The jury hasn’t yet ruled on damages. The university sought as much as $862.4 million, according to a court filing.

Apple and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the university’s licensing arm and plaintiff in the case, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In court documents, Apple said the patent was invalid and that it didn’t infringe on it.

Read an extended version of this story on WSJ.com

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