The ruling effectively ends the case before it goes to trial.Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters
Wi-LAN Inc. says Apple Inc. has won a ruling that its iPhones and iPads don't infringe two patents owned by the Canadian technology licensor ahead of a trial that was scheduled next month on the claims.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego Wednesday granted Apple's request for a ruling that based on the undisputed facts of the case, its products don't infringe the two patents, according to a statement from Wi-LAN. The judge's ruling couldn't be independently confirmed in court records.
"Wi-LAN is currently reviewing the ruling with trial counsel," the Ottawa-based company said in the statement.
The ruling comes almost a year after Wi-LAN lost a jury trial in Texas in which it sought $248-million (U.S.) in royalties from Apple for alleged infringement of another one of its patents. The companies have been in court in California, Florida and Texas for seven years over Wi-LAN's claims.
Apple, which last month unveiled its new, larger-screen iPhone models, has said in court filings that Wi-LAN has a history of asserting patents in bad faith and hasn't prevailed against Apple in any of the five lawsuits it has brought so far, the latest in June.
Sabraw's ruling effectively ends the case before it goes to trial. Apple said the patented technology pertains to prioritizing connections for allocating bandwidth and isn't relevant to its products because they don't have multiple connections that require prioritizing.
Rachel Wolf, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple, declined to comment on the ruling.
Wi-LAN closed at $3.51 and fell as much as 15 per cent to $2.97 at 5:17 p.m. in after-hours trading on the Nasdaq.
The case is Wi-LAN USA Inc. v. Apple Inc., 13-cv-00798, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California (San Diego).