Apple owes Qualcomm $31 mn for infringing three of its patents: Jury

Mobile phone chip supplier Qualcomm Inc on Friday won a legal victory against iPhone maker Apple Inc, with a jury in federal court in San Diego finding that Apple owes Qualcomm about $31 million for infringing three of its patents.

Qualcomm last year sued Apple alleging it had violated patents related to helping mobile phones get better battery life. During an eight-day trial, Qualcomm asked the jury to award it unpaid patent royalties of up to $1.41 per iPhone that violated the patents.

The $31 million penalty is small change for Apple, the second most valuable U.S. company after Microsoft Corp, with a market value of $866 billion and annual revenue totalling hundreds of billions of dollars.