A Texas federal jury ruled that Apple did not infringe a patent from Wi-Lan Inc. The latter demanded USD 248 million from Apple over the company's use of wireless technology in its mobile devices. The jury said the two patent claims were not valid. Apple said it uses chips made by Qualcomm Inc, a company that does not use technology from Wi-Lan.
According to a Bloomberg report, sales of Wi-Lan depend on royalty payments. Cantor Fitzgerald Analyst Justin Kew said the case was crucial because an agreement with Apple could do away with majority of Wi-Lan's litigation costs. Most of the USD 762,000 loss Wi-Lan posted in the second quarter came from company's litigation costs.
The decisions of Wi-Lan's patent infringement suits affected its stock in various ways. In June, Wi-Lan's stock soared to 11% after it announced an agreement with Samsung Electronics. However, when Wi-Lan lost a case against Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson over a wireless transmissions patent, stock plunged by as much as 31% in July.
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