Inventions & patents

Apple Hit With Record $5.7B Haptics Patent Verdict

Is this billion-dollar verdict vindication for a small inventor or a headline number that appeals will erase?

Published SEP 29

Apple Hit With Record $5.7B Haptics Patent Verdict

Story

Above: An iPhone displaying Apple's animated startup logo on display in an illustration photo taken on Sept. 25. Image credit: Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The Facts

A federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California found Friday that Apple infringed two Taction Technology patents covering haptic feedback systems, awarding the San Diego firm more than $5.7 billion in damages.
FOX 13 Tampa Bay
Quartz
The verdict is being described as the largest patent infringement award on record in the United States. Jurors found infringement of claims in two patents but did not determine that Apple's conduct was willful.
The Hindu
BigGo Finance
The disputed patents, numbered 10,659,885 and 10,820,117, cover vibration-based tactile transducer technology that lets users feel a device respond to their input. Apple's Taptic Engine in iPhones and Apple Watches was at the center of the case.
Verge
The Times of India
Apple said it disagrees with the outcome and will appeal, calling the damages "entirely unsupported by the facts." The company stated its Taptic Engine is fundamentally different from Taction's technology and that it does not use it.
PCMag UK
BBC News
Taction, which makes haptic headphones and gaming headsets, sued in 2021, alleging that Apple reverse-engineered the technology from two Kannon headsets. Lead counsel Lance Yang said the company had waited five and a half years for a trial.
ChosunBiz
ICLG
A San Diego federal judge ruled in 2023 that Apple had not infringed the patents, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit revived the case, leading to the trial that opened Sept. 14.
The Tech Buzz
CNET

Sources Split

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RIGHT

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ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

A jury of seven ordinary people examined the evidence, rejected every invalidity defense a trillion-dollar company could buy and sided with the small inventor. Smaller companies that pour years into genuine engineering breakthroughs deserve to be paid when a giant builds those ideas into hundreds of millions of devices.

Mario Nawfal on X

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP

Narrative B

The headlines about a multibillion-dollar payday ignore how patent litigation actually works. Massive jury awards against tech giants get slashed or tossed on appeal almost every time, and a finding of no willful infringement signals that this was never a case of deliberate theft. Both companies can expect years of appeals, and a final settlement that looks nothing like the one currently making news.

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