Jury Finds Apple Not Guilty of Infringing Five Wireless Patents

A federal jury in Texas found Apple not guilty of infringing on five wireless patents owned by Conversant Intellectual Property Management, reports Reuters.

Core Wireless Licensing Sarl, a subsidiary of Ottawa-based Conversant, sued Apple in 2012 in a federal court in Tyler, Texas, alleging the iPhone maker used its patents on wireless data transmission in its iPhones and iPads without permission.

After five hours of jury deliberation on Monday night, Apple was cleared of any infringement. The company had been seeking $100 million in damages. Apple said the damages, if there were any, should be less than $1 million.


Conversant acquired Core Wireless and its 2,000 Nokia patents and patent applications in 2011. As part of its deal with Nokia, Microsoft had access to those patents. Notably, in its acquisition agreement, Conversant agreed to return two-thirds of any revenue from licensing and litigating the patents back to Microsoft and Nokia. It's unclear if this agreement is still in force.

While this trial went Apple's way, the company was recently ordered to pay $532.9 million after a federal jury found iTunes infringed three patents held by Smartflash LLC. Apple will likely appeal.

Read More