Caltech v. Broadcom and Apple (2019-2021)
A Texas jury awarded Caltech $1.1 billion over Wi-Fi coding patents covering Broadcom chips in Apple products. The Federal Circuit in 2021 threw out the entire damages award, finding the royalty theory rested on worldwide rather than US sales, and ordered a new trial.
The $1.1 billion verdict was vacated and remanded for a new damages trial.
The case resolved for a small fraction of the original award, with Caltech licensing the patents to Apple and Broadcom.
Same defendant (Apple), same appellate court, and the same failure mode: a damages theory that could not survive appellate scrutiny.
