Jury Tells ‘Patent Troll’ to Take a Hike in Major Apple Victory
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Apple has scored a victory over a patent troll, as a US jury has told Optis that Apple has not infringed on any of its LTE patents. This puts a long legal dispute to bed for the iPhone maker — at least until the next appeal.
In June 2025, the US Court of Appeals threw out a verdict that would have required Apple to pay Optis $300 million in damages. The case was then sent to a trial by jury, where it boiled down to a single question about the five patents at issue.
Reuters reports the jury was unanimous in its vote. The question: “Did Optis prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Apple infringed at least one claim from each of the following patents?”
The jurors were asked simply to check a “Yes” or “No” box for each patent. Every juror checked “No” across the board.
Apple told Reuters:
We thank the jury for their time, and we’re pleased they rejected Optis’ false claims. Optis makes no products, and its sole business is to sue companies, which it has done repeatedly to Apple in an attempt to obtain an excessive payout.
While Optis did not provide a statement about the verdict, it is expected to appeal.
In February 2019, Optis sued over seven LTE patents, all related to LTE standards.
In its lawsuit, Optis claimed that it had been discussing licensing the patents under FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms.
As happens in cases like this, Optis doesn’t manufacture any of its own products, and instead met the classic definition of a patent troll. A patent troll is a company that purchases patents with the sole aim of generating income via licensing the patents or lawsuits like the one it filed against Apple.
In 2020, Optis scored a legal victory, as Apple was ordered by a Texas federal jury to pay $506.2 million in royalties for Apple’s past sales of devices that infringed the patents.
As you’d expect, Apple appealed the verdict, as in March 2021, the iPhone maker argued the ruling should be thrown out, due to how the jury had been briefed. All nine claims from the five patents in question were “bundled” into one question, which Apple claimed made it “impossible to know” which of the claims the jury agreed with.
While Apple pushed for a retrial, Optis pushed for more than the $506.2 million verdict from the first trial. In March 2021, Optis pushed for an ongoing royalty rate that Apple characterized as excessive, seeking a per-unit fee for every iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch sold moving forward. While the exact figures remained a point of contention, Apple argued the demands were far beyond the standard rates for such technology.
“Case law and the facts strongly support an ongoing royalty at a rate higher than that awarded by the jury on a per-patent, per-unit basis,” said PanOptis in a court motion. “Nonetheless, plaintiffs seek an ongoing rate solely at the per-patent, per-unit rate awarded by the jury, without an increase.”
Optis was not immediately granted the royalties, and US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap granted Apple a second trial, with the specification the retrial be limited to the issue of damages. This meant that the verdict was not at doubt, but would solely be concerned with the damages Apple would be required to pay.
However, the second trial, which began in August 2021, concluded the original damages were too much, reducing them to $300 million.
While it was a minor victory for Apple, the company released a statement saying it was disappointed by the verdict, and would be filing an appeal. The statement said, “Optis makes no products and its sole business is to sue companies using patents they accumulate. We will continue to defend against their attempts to extract unreasonable payments for patents they acquire.”
A Global Legal Tug-of-War
Around this time, Optis pushed for a legal victory on another front, this time in the United Kingdom, where it pushed for $7 billion in damages and a global royalty rate over 4G patents. Apple stated that it would be forced to exit the UK market if it was forced to pay such a “commercially unacceptable fee.”
Optis scored a legal victory in the UK case in March 2022, as the London High Court ruled that two 4G patents owned by Optis were standard essential patents (SEPs) and that Apple infringed on them.
Apple also appealed that verdict, claiming that these patents were not essential, and that it hadn’t infringed them. A court denied that appeal in July 2023.
However, UK Judge Marcus Smith did not award the billions in damages Optis wanted, instead awarding the patent firm a mere $56.43 million (plus interest). Optis then appealed that award and in May 2025, the UK Court of Appeal agreed, although it ruled that Apple will instead have to pay $502 million for use of the patents in its devices, including the iPhone. The lump sum would cover 2013 to 2027, amounting to a global license to use Optis patents.
The UK is expected to hand down a decision based on the results of the US case toward the end of June, which Apple will undoubtedly appeal.
