Apple and Broadcom challenge the validity of California Institute of Technology patents, which are rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Beijing, June 27 (Xinhua)-- the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Apple and Broadcom challenge the validity of California Institute of Technology data transmission patents in a patent infringement lawsuit on Monday, local time. But at the same time, the jury decided earlier that the two companies should pay Caltech 1.1 billion dollars in compensation was also rejected retrial.

The Supreme Court judge rejected appeals by Apple and Broadcom against the lower court decision. The previous ruling confirmed a decision by a trial judge not to allow the two companies to challenge the validity of patents in Caltech's lawsuit.

The US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which specialises in patent cases, rejected the companies' views, saying they had failed to present them in an earlier review process by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Apple and Broadcom argue that they should be allowed to challenge the validity of patents during the trial.

The jury had previously found that Apple and Broadcom had infringed the California Institute of Technology patents and ordered Apple to pay $837.8 million in damages and Broadcom $270.2 million. However, the Federal Circuit Court challenged the amount of compensation and sent the case back for retrial to determine appropriate damages.

Caltech sued Apple and Broadcom in federal court in Los Angeles in 2016, alleging that millions of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and other devices using Broadcom's WiFi chips infringed the university's data transmission patents.

Apple is a major buyer of Broadcom chips, and the two sides reached a $15 billion chip supply agreement in January 2020, which will end in 2023. Broadcom estimates that 20% of its revenue comes from apple.

The Federal Circuit upheld the trial judge's decision not to allow the companies to argue that patents were invalid at this stage because they could have made these points in their patent examination requests submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

However, Apple and Broadcom told the Supreme Court that the Federal Circuit's interpretation of the law was inaccurate, saying that the law simply did not allow views that might be made during the patent review process. In May, the U.S. government urged the judge to dismiss the case and said the Federal Circuit Court's interpretation of the law was accurate.

Caltech also sued Microsoft, Samsung Electronics, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, alleging that they also infringed the same patent.