Apple Inc. has been ordered to pay nearly $9 million in damages for infringing a ring-silencing patent with technology it incorporated into earlier versions of the iPhone.
A Delaware federal judge on Monday nearly tripled a $3 million jury verdict awarded to Ironworks Patents, a nonpracticing entity that acquired the patent from the original plaintiff in April. The award represented a 12.5-cent royalty for each of the 71.5 million iPhones that infringed on Ironwork’s so-called “polite-ignore” patent.
