A California federal jury handed Apple a substantial victory over patent-plaintiff GPNE yesterday afternoon, finding Apple’s iPhone and iPad products do not infringe three GPNE patents alleged to be essential to GPRS and LTE standards. After less than one day of deliberations following a two-week trial, the jury issued a verdict form finding that none of Apple’s products infringed the asserted patents and awarding no amount of the $94 million in damages sought by GPNE. The jury did not deliver a complete landslide victory to Apple, finding the tech-giant failed to prove the asserted patent claims to be invalid.

This case first appeared on our radar after GPNE submitted an expert report on damages opining that the asserted patents should be afforded a royalty rate greater than what was warranted by the technical value of the patent based on the “hold-up” value the patent. Based on the opinion of GPNE’s technical expert that the asserted patents were essential to the GPRS and LTE communication standards, GPNE’s damages expert argued that because the patents are not subject to any RAND-obligation, the alleged standard-essential patents demand a higher royalty rate higher than the particular patented technology itself warranted. As discussed in our April 23, 2014 post, Judge Koh excluded the expert’s testimony without prejudice, allowing GPNE to submit an amended expert report on damages. GPNE’s damages expert submitted a subsequent report providing additional support for the royalty calculation and was permitted to present testimony on both reports at trial.