Apple faces $862M patent damage claim from University of Wisconsin

One of Apple's A7 chips at the heart of the patent lawsuit. (credit: iFixit)

A jury has found Apple's A7 and A8 chips violate a patent belonging to the licensing arm of the University of Wisconsin, and the world's richest smartphone maker is now on the hook for up to $862 million in damages.

The Wisconsin jury reached a verdict on Monday that Apple infringed US Patent No. 5,781,752, and the trial now enters a separate damages phase. The patent is owned by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, a university patent-licensing organization that was suing over patents before it was cool.

WARF sued Sony over patents in 2003, and both IBM and Samsung in 2004. It asserted the same patent Apple was found to infringe to sue Intel in 2008, but the case settled just before trial the following year.