// 9TO5MAC — MOBILE & WEB
Following $5.7B verdict, Taction wants a cut of iPhone and Apple Watch sales through 2035
Following a historic $5.7 billion patent infringement verdict against Apple, Taction Technology is now seeking additional damages, interest, and ongoing royalties on future iPhone and Apple Watch sales. Here are the details.
Late last month, a US jury found that Apple’s Taptic Engine infringed on two patents held by Taction Technology, awarding $5.7 billion in damages. Apple strongly disputed the verdict, arguing that its technology was fundamentally different from Taction’s, and said it would appeal.
A few weeks later, Apple asked the court to overturn the verdict or order a new trial, arguing that Taction had failed to provide evidence supporting the $5.7 billion award, leaving jurors to engage in “impermissible guesswork on a massive scale.”
Now, as spotted by Reuters, Taction has filed a motion seeking supplemental damages, ongoing royalties on future iPhone and Apple Watch sales, prejudgment interest dating back to April 2021, and additional interest from the date of the final judgment until Apple pays.
According to Taction, the jury’s award only accounted for Apple’s sales through March 2026, leaving another six months of iPhone and Apple Watch sales for which the company is now seeking compensation.
Interestingly, Taction is using Apple’s own arguments from its previous patent litigation against Samsung to support its request for ongoing royalties.
In that case, Apple argued that royalties should apply not only to products found to infringe its patents, but also to newer models using essentially the same technology.
Taction is now making the same argument, seeking to extend royalty payments to Apple’s latest devices, including the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12, and Apple Watch Ultra 4, which it says “are not more than colorably different from the infringing products.”
Apple itself has embraced this rule. As a patentee seeking ongoing royalties, Apple told the Northern District of California that “any ongoing royalties extend not only to ongoing sales of products found to infringe by the jury, but also to products ‘not more than colorably different’ therefrom.”
For the ongoing payments on what Taction claims are infringing products, the company is asking the court to compel Apple to provide quarterly reports of its US sales, with royalty payments due within 30 days of the end of each quarter.