Apple ordered to pay $5.7bn after losing vibration tech patent suit
Audio firm Taction Technology claimed Apple infringed its patents for tech used to power device vibrations.
Apple ordered to pay $5.7bn after losing vibration tech patent suit
Apple has been ordered to pay $5.7bn (£4.3bn) in damages after a US jury concluded it had used another company’s technology without permission.
Audio company Taction Technology alleged in 2021 that Apple had violated two of its patents covering haptics systems, which create vibrations for actions such as receiving a message or pressing a button.
The technology is integrated into devices including the iPhone and Apple Watch.
The company said it had not used Taction’s vibration technology and planned to appeal the ruling.
“While we thank the jury for their consideration, we strongly disagree with today’s verdict and the damages awarded, which are entirely unsupported by the facts,” Apple said.
“Apple’s Taptic Engine is fundamentally different from Taction’s technology, which Taction’s own testing of Apple’s products confirmed during trial.”
Haptics let people interact with devices by mimicking the sense of touch through vibrations.
They have become a defining feature of modern devices, with smartphones, watches and video game controllers among those containing small motors that respond to specific electronic signals.
Apple’s “Taptic Engine” system — which provides haptic feedback in its devices — first appeared with the Apple Watch in 2014.
Since then, Apple has refined its underlying system and expanded haptics across its devices.
Taction, which makes headphones and gaming headsets, said in 2021 that those improvements infringed patents it was granted in 2020.
In its complaint, external, it said that by delivering better haptic vibrations in its devices, Apple had been able to enhance its overall user experience.
As a result, the tech giant had been “capitalising on Taction’s innovation and success by selling devices that infringe [its] patents”, Taction said.
It also accused Apple of using its inventions “without license or authority”.
A San Diego judge ruled in 2023 that Apple did not infringe Taction’s patents.
But an appeal was later taken up by a federal appeal circuit, leading to a September jury trial at the US District Court for the Southern District of California, which ruled in Taction’s favour.
In Friday’s verdict, external, jurors did not find that Apple had infringed the patents in question wilfully.
The case is one of many similar lawsuits the tech giant has faced in recent years.
In November 2025, a judge ordered Apple to pay $634m, external to medical technology company Masimo after a jury found it had infringed a patent for blood-oxygen reading technology.