back to article Wisconsin badgers Apple to cough up half a billion dollars for ripping off chip designs

Apple has been hit with a $506m bill for infringing CPU design patents belonging to the University of Wisconsin. Judge William Conley, of the Wisconsin Western US District Court, has ordered [PDF] the Cupertino iPhone maker to pay $506,084,992.66 (£386m) in damages. This comes after a jury found that Apple used technology in …

  1. Oh Homer
    Pirate

    Live by the sword...

    This is the problem with using extortion as a business model. Eventually it comes full circle to bite you in the arse.

    1. Commswonk
      Coat

      Re: Live by the sword...

      Mixed metaphor in the posting area...

      1. Oh Homer

        Re: Mixed metaphor

        No Betty, the red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in a white zone.

    2. Bob Vistakin
      Facepalm

      Re: Live by the sword...

      You're chipping it wrong.

  2. Herby

    Just the cost of doing business.

    Given how much cash Apple has, it probably isn't much. Of course, I would like that amount in my pocket, but Apple's pockets are HUGE! Mine are but a microdot by comparison.

  3. Notas Badoff

    Do not mess with badgers

    They will make you bleed.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Do not mess with badgers

      https://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/

    2. Kurt Meyer
      Thumb Up

      Re: Do not mess with badgers

      I am surprised that no loyal son or daughter of Wisconsin has posted this. The sentiments expressed seem entirely appropriate.

      Badgers.

  4. ma1010
    Coat

    Hey, Apple!

    How ya doin'? How's that patent "thermonuclear war" tactic working out for you these days?

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Hey, Apple!

      According to AAPL on the NASDAQ, pretty damned well.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hey, Apple!

        Its like Microsoft shares, no bearing on reality.

        Both companies have failing product lines, but share price is unaffected, until the point it fails, then it fails spectacular...

  5. Christopher Reeve's Horse

    ICAN has Cheese?

    What's the cheese all about, did I miss something?

    1. Chris Miller

      Re: ICAN has Cheese?

      Wisconsin = America's Dairyland

      1. Agamemnon
        Pint

        Re: ICAN has Cheese?

        I've lived in both California and Wisconsin.

        1. California produces more cheese by almost an order of magnitude.

        2. Wisconsin cheese is actually a bit better (I'm not allowed to wander around Madison with my bank cards...I'll get a wheel of cheese and a palette of crackers...and essentially epoxy my colon shut) but that's because...I guess we're calling it "Artisan" now...it's smaller batches of awesome.

        3. The Dairy Association happily recycles marketing for both regions (Think East Cheese/West Cheese) with very little editing. [Excepting the "Happy Cows" campaign.]

        So, Wisconsin being America's Dairy Land is marketing.

        But That Doesn't Stop Me from buying into the BS, mostly because I love cheese and I CHOOSE to buy into the BS.

        Now, I live in Seattle(ish) and there are two other Wars Of Interest:

        * Food Trucks: Seattle vs SiliValley (San Francisco) vs Los Angeles (just "Silly"). This war is interesting, and the bystanders are the winners here. Collateral Damage: Start With Heartburn and work down from there.

        * BEER! (Got your attention?) Seattle has some Very Fine "micro" breweries. [1] Wisconsin has some Very Fine "micro" breweries (New Glarius comes to mind [2]). Now *this* little conflict I'm quite invested in seeing continue. Collateral Damage: Liver

        So, dairy is of little interest in Wisconsin. But THE BEER!!!

        [1] My better and I waited in line for ~2h to get a few pints for her son (he had to work that day) on "UnBarrel Day" at a Local. There was a 2x (Imperial) pint limit for each of the two beers: Cogniac Midnight and Coconut Midnight (both Dark Stouts). With two of us we could sport back eight pints for the young man. They were both Most Fine (I got some pours for The Lady and I after acquisition.

        [2] Last time I was in Wisconsin for a few weeks, I went through a Six of that brewery's each day. I think they had 23 or 25 different brews. I Loved four, hated three (don't like pilsner or most fruits, that's what wine is for) and the rest were much better than decent.

        [Bonus] If you're in Madison, give Great Dane, Capital, and The Asylum breweries a shot. The Shepard's Pie is really good at Great Dane.

        [Extra Bonus] University of Wisconsin at Madison has a 40' Grill outside the cafeteria where they make Bratwurst for a period of time each day. Walking in from "Downtown", you can find it by smell. They're (college student) Cheap, and Most Excellent.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: ICAN has Cheese?

          There was a 2x (Imperial) pint limit for each of the two beers:

          First they rediscover proper beer, and now they're serving it in proper quantities. There's even rumours of proper cheese.

          I can only conclude that the USA will be being run by the UK before the year is out...

        2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

          Re: ICAN has Cheese?

          Agamemnon,

          An exccellent post, but I have to ask a vital question. With your cheese and crackers, what do you do about port in the US? Do the Californians produce any? Obviously they're not allowed to call it port, but fortified-wine-for-cheese is just small enough to fit on the bottle. Or there's an Australian vineyard who produce Starboard...

          Anyway it's vital to any serious cheese consumption that it be accompanied by a decent bottle, ahem, glass of port.

          When I lived in Belgium they maintained that you could fulfill this duty with beer. That any food could be accompanied by the appropriate beer. But I disagree. Lamb is better with a decent red and so is cheese, though port is best for that vital role.

          The Belgians did successfully infect me with a love of fruit beers though. Nice to see the US craft breweries havinging a go at them. Not many of the English ones seem to go for it. Though Meantime's raspberry ale was very nice.

      2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: ICAN has Cheese?

        Wisconsin = America's Dairyland

        Hence the Green Bay Packers being subtitled as "The Cheeseheads"..

  6. DNTP

    Apple should countersue

    I notice that while the University of Wisconsin's website design is entirely devoid of rounded corners, they've made a tactical error in using the letter "U" prominently throughout and in their logo. As plainly seen, that letter is rendered as a rounded corner so if I were Apple's lawyer I would offer an exchange of liabilities- the UWis can keep using the letter U with in all its rounded glory, and in exchange for this consideration Apple can make use of any or all of the trivial little patents UWis might happen to hold rights for.

    1. Youngone Silver badge

      Re: Apple should countersue

      @ DNTP

      Two Apple lawyers downvoting you for stealing their idea.

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: Apple should countersue

        Two Apple lawyers downvoting you for stealing their idea.

        Or, more accurately, three people downvoted him/her/it for continuing with the tired old "rounded corners" trope..

      2. chivo243 Silver badge
        Trollface

        Re: Apple should countersue

        @Youngone

        There are always two malcontents here in the Apple Bashery. I have an even number of downvotes to prove it.

        1. Youngone Silver badge

          Re: Apple should countersue

          @ chivo 243

          There are always two malcontents here in the Apple Bashery

          Looks like they've both been at my comment above. LOL.

  7. Chris Miller

    Wisconsin court rules in favour of Wisconsin U

    #holdthefrontpage

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wisconsin court rules in favour of Wisconsin U

      If Apple appeals it won't matter, the appellate courts are assigned by districts so if there was any 'home field advantage' in the ruling it would be sorted there. I think people assume there is more such favoritism than there really is. While judges are human, they try to be impartial.

      It is interesting that they sued in their home court instead of east Texas, this is the first major tech patent case I've seen in a while that wasn't east Texas or California.

      1. xXSwolGunzXx

        Re: Wisconsin court rules in favour of Wisconsin U

        They'd have to have some presence in east Texas to sue there. Dunno how much. Of course if your company is a patent troll with no real business activity it's trivial to set up in the patent-friendliest area you can find.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Wisconsin court rules in favour of Wisconsin U

          Or the defendant would need a presence in east Texas. Pretty sure there's an Apple Store in Dallas, Houston or Austin (probably all three) so UWisc could have sued there if they wanted.

    2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: Wisconsin court rules in favour of Wisconsin U

      The judge's alma-mater also happens to be the University of Wisconsin.

      There's Apple's appeal hook for starters. He should have recused himself.

      IANAL etc but there is precident in other cases in that Federal District.

  8. conscience

    It's about time Apple got slapped down for using tech that doesn't belong to them as though they have some sort of innate right to it. They could easily afford any licence fees and have no excuses, they'd be the first to scream and moan if anybody used any of their tech without permission.

  9. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
    Coat

    Wisconsin badgers?

    Are those like Illinois Nazis? Because I hate Illinois Nazis.

  10. Oh Homer
    Windows

    You had me at cheese

    Type your cheese here -- advanced dairy produce and hotcakes are allowed

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: You had me at cheese

      I know of a company that named servers after cheeses. Turns out there's not nearly that many cheese names.

      1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: You had me at cheese

        "Turns out there's not nearly that many cheese names."

        I find that very hard to believe.

      2. Swarthy
        Coat

        Re: You had me at cheese

        there's not nearly that many cheese names

        I can havardy believe that. It may take a gouda bit of effort for a larger data center, but for most it should be a brie-ze. admittedly some cheese names may be feta'd by trademarks, so you'd cheddar get parmesan to use them. Although, I wouldn't recommend using cheese names for servers; the users may start feeling bleu when they can't edam.

  11. lglethal Silver badge
    Go

    Ok some more details I read elsewhere

    The original judgement against Apple was for about 300 Million. This new judgement is punishment (upping it to 500 Million) for continuing to use the offending design in the A7 Chips without obtaining a licence to use it from Uni Wisconsin.

    In addition, there is a court case (currently on hold) against Apple for the A8 and A9 Chips for violating the exact same Patent. The reason it is on hold is that Apple are trying to get the patent invalidated and that is still going through the Courts. If they succeed, probably all bets are off. If not, Apple are looking at this 500 Million plus more from using the same design in the A8 and A9 Chips.

    Some of this info, might have been nice to read in the article, El reg...

  12. David Gillies

    That pseudocode's got a buffer overflow error in it.

  13. cb7

    Curious

    How does one figure out one's chip design patent has been infringed?

    I imagine it must be pretty hard to dissect and examine something manufactured at the nm scale. Especially when it has billions of transistors.

    And don't these things have multiple layers nowadays? Making it even harder.

    I'm pretty sure manufacturers don't publish their designs/blue prints in the public domain for all and sundry to see and copy.

    1. David Roberts
      Coat

      Re: Curious

      Conversely how do you establish that your really great idea is already buried somewhere in an obscure patent?

      As far as I can tell in the USA software engineers patent everything they produce down to trivial levels including any interesting variance of their morning turds.

      --> Just hanging my coat up before.....

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