A judge has ruled that Apple Inc.’s A7, A8 and A8X processor chips infringe on patents held by the University of Wisconsin, and the court has ordered Apple to pay the university more than $506 million in damages.

The specific patent in question is US Patent No. 5,781,752, which is titled “Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer.” Essentially, the patent covers a method by which a processor runs more efficiently by predicting how data will need to be accessed by a user. Gurindar Sohi, a professor of computer science at University of Wisconsin, and three students received the patent in 1998.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation won its suit against Apple in 2015, but Wisconsin Judge William Conley significantly increased the damages owed by Apple because the company continued its “willful infringement” of the patent by continuing to use the predictor chips in its mobile processors after the ruling. According to Reuters, the court’s new $506 million judgement is more than double the damages initially imposed by a jury.

The order signed by Conley yesterday shows that in addition to the damages awarded by the jury, the court also ordered Apple to pay an amount for each instance of infringement. This includes supplemental damages of $1.61 per infringing unit sold before Oct. 26, 2015, as well as ongoing royalties of $2.74 per unit sold afterward through the expiration of the patent on Dec. 26, 2016. The court also awarded the university some court costs, as well as post-judgement interest compounded annually through June 30, 2017. The data used to determine the final amount is not available to the public, so it is unclear just how many processors are counted as infringing.

Neither Apple nor the University of Wisconsin have commented on the $506 million judgement, but Apple has already filed an appeal against the court’s ruling, so it the patent battle could still be a long way from over.

Photo: Apple