The patent troll Optis has been told by a US jury that Apple has not infringed on any of its LTE patents, ending the elongated dispute in the US until yet another appeal is made.

The latest jury trial occurred after the US Court of Appeals threw out a verdict that would have had Apple paying Optis $300 million in damages. The case was then sent to a trial by jury where the jury members would be asked a single question about the five patents.

According to a report from Reuters, the jury voted unanimously. The question was: “Did Optis prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Apple infringed at least one claim from each of the following patents?”

The jurors were provided a checkbox for each patent, in which they all filled out a resounding “no.”

Apple shared a statement with Reuters, while Optis didn’t.

“We thank the jury for their time, and we’re pleased they rejected Optis’ false claims,” an Apple spokesperson said. “Optis makes no products, and its sole business is to sue companies, which it has done repeatedly to Apple in an attempt to obtain an excessive payout.”

Optis will most likely appeal.

Optis vs Apple: how we got here

This legal battle over alleged patent infringement has seen Optis attempting to sue Apple in separate cases in both the US and the UK. It began with the US one in February 2019, when Optis sued Apple over seven patents, all related to LTE standards.

Optis claimed at the time that up to 2017 it had been discussing licensing the patents under FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms.

But Optis does not produce any products and appeared to be the definition of a patent troll — a company that solely generates income through patent licensing and lawsuits like this.

It can be a profitable line of business, though, as in August 2020, Optis won its case. Apple was ordered by a Texas federal jury to pay $506.2 million in royalties for past sales of infringing devices.

Apple is frequently targeted by patent trolls

Inevitably, Apple appealed, but it had specific grounds to. In March 2021, it argued that the ruling was flawed because of how the jury had been briefed. The court had bundled Optis’s “nine claims from five patents into one question,” and this made it “impossible to know” which of the claims the jury agreed with.

“[When] a verdict is tainted by that kind of uncertainty, the general-verdict rule requires setting the verdict aside and conducting a new trial,” claimed Apple.

Apple would get its second trial, but while this was being decided, Optis pushed for more than the $506 million damages. At the end of March 2021, Optis asked the court to award it $44.22 for every iPhone sold in the future, $3.62 for every iPad, and $2.25 for each Apple Watch.

“Case law and the facts strongly support an ongoing royalty at a rate higher than that awarded by the jury on a per-patent, per-unit basis,” said PanOptis in a court motion. “Nonetheless, plaintiffs seek an ongoing rate solely at the per-patent, per-unit rate awarded by the jury, without an increase.”

Apple got a retrial

Optis has not gotten the per-device in perpetuity royalty yet, and the courts did agree that there was “serious doubt” over the first trial. In April 2021, Judge Giltrap granted Apple a second trial.

However, the judge limited it to the issue of damages. This trial was not to overturn the verdict of Apple’s guilt, but solely what the company had to pay as a result.

Come August 2021, though, the second trial did conclude that the original damages were too high. But they were only reduced to $300 million.

“We thank the jury for their time but are disappointed by the verdict and plan to appeal,” Apple said in a statement at the time. “Optis makes no products and its sole business is to sue companies using patents they accumulate.”

“We will continue to defend against their attempts to extract unreasonable payments for patents they acquire,” continued the company.

These trials go so long that multiple new iPhone models release

Around this point, Optis was also having success in the UK, where it was attempting to get $7 billion in damages and a global royalty rate. Apple threatened to exit the British market if it is forced to pay a “commercially unacceptable fee.”

While it was threatening that for the UK case, it did, of course, go ahead with its appeal against the US one.

This time, Apple argued that there were multiple issues with evidence and testimony, as well as the original jury instructions. Apple maintained that because of all of this, it was entitled to a third trial.

However, in May 2022, Judge Gilstrap denied the request for either a new trial or a new ruling.

Meanwhile in the UK

Shortly before this, the UK case had seen another victory for Optis in March 2022. The London High Court ruled that two 4G patents owned by Optis were what are called standard essential patents (SEPs) and that Apple infringed on them.

Apple claimed both that these patents were not essential, and that anyway it hadn’t infringed them. In July 2023, though, its appeal against the ruling was denied.

But instead of the billions sought by Optis, UK Judge Marcus Smith awarded only $56.43 million (plus interest). This time, it was Optis who appealed and in May 2025, the UK’s Court of Appeal agreed.

According to that ruling, Apple has to pay $502 million for the use of the 4G patents in iPhones and other devices. It’s a lump sum covering 2013 to 2027, and represents a global license to use Optis patents.

“[We are] pleased the UK Court of Appeals has recognized and corrected a clearly flawed prior ruling,” an Optis spokesperson told AppleInsider, “and has made meaningful progress toward affirming the true value of our patents to Apple devices.”

The UK is expected to make a decision based on the results of the US case in June, where Apple will appeal. Given the ruling in favor of Apple, it could go well for them.