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?

2 hours ago·Updated 1 hour ago

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 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 on 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.

Notebookcheck

Obaino on X