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Oct 12 (Reuters) – The California Institute of Technology has reached an agreement to end a patent lawsuit against Apple (AAPL.O) and Broadcom (AVGO.O) over Wi-Fi chips, according to a filing in California federal court.

Pasadena, California-based Caltech sued Apple and Broadcom in 2016, alleging that millions of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and other Apple devices using Broadcom chips infringed its wireless-communication patents.

Caltech said in the Wednesday filing that it would dismiss the billion-dollar case with prejudice, which means that it cannot be refiled.

Both sides told the court in August that they had reached a “potential settlement” without disclosing additional details. Representatives for Caltech, Apple and Broadcom did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

A jury ordered Apple to pay $837.8 million and Broadcom to pay $270.2 million in patent-infringement damages in 2020.

A U.S. appeals court overturned the award last year and ordered a new trial on damages, finding the amount was “legally unsupportable.” A trial that had been scheduled to start this June was postponed indefinitely in May.

Caltech settled a related lawsuit against Samsung (005930.KS) in August. The university has also sued Microsoft (MSFT.O), Dell (DELL.N) and HP (HPQ.N) over its Wi-Fi patents in cases that are still pending.

Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington
Editing by David Bario and Josie Kao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Blake Brittain reports on intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, for Reuters Legal. He has previously written for Bloomberg Law and Thomson Reuters Practical Law and practiced as an attorney.
Contact: +12029385713

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