US jury says Apple owes record $5.7B in haptic technology patent case

spacedcowboy

That’s not chump change, even if it’s ~1.5% of Apple’s yearly revenue… I wonder what it’ll be like after appeal.

smalltorch

Wow, that's a lot of money for a little buzz. I mean what could possibly be such sacred knowledge that a vibration could even be patentable. You spin a unbalanced thing in a circle and it creates a vibration. Make it less unbalanced and you get a smoother vibration.

jjtheblunt

from the article, Taction themselves agreed Apple's tech was different : "Apple's Taptic Engine is fundamentally different from Taction's technology, which Taction's own testing of Apple's products confirmed during trial," Apple said in response

hingler36

I'm interested in reading more information as it comes out, but a lot of the comments claiming it's "just vibrations" are being a bit reductionist. These devices are controlled by complex algorithms, and they take a lot of time and money to create. Why shouldn't this company enjoy the same IP protections that Apple enjoys on their work?

droidjj

The patent claims the jury found were infringed: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10659885B2/en?oq=us10659... claims 17 and 19 https://patents.google.com/patent/US10820117B2/en?oq=us10820... claim 16

Cider9986

While consumer related payouts are way lower. https://www.enzuzo.com/blog/data-privacy-lawsuits https://openclassactions.com/news/apple-siri-settlement-paym...

dmix

I remember working at an office building and the company on the floor above us won a big patent suit against Microsoft. We didn't see them at the office after that. I assumed they just stopped working and lived off the money.

Danox

Can I get a patent? On faster than light drive or blood Pulse_oximetry an idea first conceived in the (1840’s). The first useful invention that you could hold in your hand was created by a German scientist in the 1930s. Apple still lost the American lawsuit however, but because of all the prior work in Japan, Germany and Britain from the early 1900’s the American patents have no standing in the rest of the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_oximetry

1vuio0pswjnm7

1790440333 | Apple faces $5.7B patent infringement over iPhone and Apple Watch haptics | https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/26/apple-taction-technology-pat... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49858111 | 0 comments

MiroslavPokorny

Im going to guess that Apple doesnt actually manufacture the device but buys them from some mass producer. The same mass producer also sells the same to all the other device manufacturers. So why would they only limit themselves to Apple ?

MiroslavPokorny

Its amazing this buzzer is probably worth more than all the fruit and veggie growers in America. Im wondering which do we actually need.