Apple, Broadcom sued by Caltech for Wi-Fi patents

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Broadcom and Apple that concerns Apple's iPhones beginning with iPhone 5, iPad, MacBook Air and Apple Watch, among others. This report explains how Apple uses Broadcom technology, which in turn, uses IRA/LDPC encoders and/or decoders which were invented by Caltech. It adds that in the lawsuit, Apple is drawn in by virtue of using Broadcom Wi-Fi products.Explaining the details of the lawsuit further, the report by Patently Apple says that one of the key improvements to the 802.11n version of the Wi-Fi standard involved a 'High Throughput' (HT) mode that is implemented using a specific type of LDPC (Low-Density Parity Check) code. This LDPC code used in 802.11n implements Caltech's patented IRA code technology. This improvement was also incorporated in the subsequent 802.11ac version of the standard, which describes a 'Very High Throughput' (VHT) mode. The report shares how HT and VHT provide significant advantages like faster data transmission and reduced complexity of encoders and decoders over earlier versions of the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard.The report also points out that Broadcom's sales and marketing materials comfirm that its products use LDPC and are compliant with 802.11n, 802.11ac standards. Apple, incidentally one of Broadcom's biggest customers, incorporated the company's Wi-Fi products into iPhones, iPads and Mac computers. And it's common sense that the sale of these products generated quite a sizeable amount in revenue.Apple was part of a similar lawsuit last year and was ordered to pay the University of Wisconsin-Madison's patent licensing arm more than $234 million in damages for incorporating its microchip technology into some of the company's iPhones and iPads without permission. The amount was less than the $400 million the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation was claiming in damages after the jury said Apple infringed its patent for improving the performance of computer processors.