Jury Orders Apple to Pay $5.7 Billion Over Taptic Engine Patents; Apple Says It Will Appeal

A US federal jury on Friday found that AAPL must pay more than $5.7 billion to Taction Technology, ruling that Apple unintentionally infringed two Taction patents related to haptic feedback . If the verdict holds, it would be one of the largest patent infringement payouts in the US, topping an ongoing case involving Intel for $3 billion .

The patents cover a "vibration module for applying vibrational tractions to a wearer's skin," and Taction argued that Apple's Taptic Engine, the hardware behind haptic feedback for notifications and button presses, infringes them; one of the two is U.S. Patent No. 10,820,117 . The Taptic Engine debuted in the Apple Watch in 2014 and reached the iPhone 6s the following year . Taction, which supplies haptic technology for gaming headphones such as the Corsair HS60 Haptic, filed suit in 2021 . A federal judge in San Diego dismissed the case in 2023 before the Federal Circuit appeals court revived it .

Apple said it strongly disagrees with the verdict and the damages, which it called "entirely unsupported by the facts," argued its Taptic Engine is fundamentally different from Taction's technology, and said it will appeal . Taction's lead counsel said the company waited five and a half years to reach trial .

The verdict adds to Apple's haptics and wearables litigation: Immersion's earlier haptics suit ended in an undisclosed settlement, and a separate jury ordered Apple to pay $634 million to Masimo over blood-oxygen patents, a verdict Apple also plans to appeal . Next steps to watch include post-trial motions, the appeal, and any settlement talks, all of which could change the final amount.