Apple has been ordered to pay $5.7bn in damages after a US jury found it had used another firm's tech without permission.
In a statement given to news outlets including CNBC, external, the company said it had not used Taction's vibration tech and would appeal the verdict.
A San Diego judge ruled in 2023 that Apple did not infringe upon Taction's patents.
3 sentences from our version of the report,
chosen to cover it. Nothing here is written; every line is in the article below.
How
Summarized version
Apple has been ordered to pay $5.7bn in damages after a US jury found it had used another firm's tech without permission.
The report’s most important sentence, shortened and in plain words. How
Headline check
The one thing this headline claims is in the report.
Figures, names and quoted words in the headline, looked for in the report itself — not in the summary above. One claim in this headline could be checked, so this is a narrow pass and not a thorough one. How this is checked
The article, shortened and in plain language
Apple has been ordered to pay $5.7bn in damages after a US jury found it had used another firm's tech without permission.
Audio firm Taction Technology claimed in 2021 that Apple had infringed two of its patents for haptics systems, which enable vibrations for actions such as receiving a message or pressing a button.
Apple has been approached for comment. In a statement given to news outlets including CNBC, external, the company said it had not used Taction's vibration tech and would appeal the verdict.
Apple's "Taptic Engine" system - enabling haptic feedback in its devices - first debuted with the Apple Watch in 2014.
Taction claimed in 2021 that these improvements infringed patents it was issued in 2020.
A San Diego judge ruled in 2023 that Apple did not infringe upon Taction's patents.
An appeal was later taken up by a federal appeal circuit - resulting in a September jury trial at the US District Court for the Southern District of California which found in its favour.
In November 2025 a judge ordered Apple to pay $634m, external to medical tech firm Masimo after a jury found it had infringed a patent for blood-oxygen reading tech.
Shortened to 1 minute
of reading, this version reads 5.8 on the Niral Score.
You are reading our version, not theirs.
This is BBC News (Technology)'s report shortened to its most important sentences, in plainer words, with
verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives
that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations
are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure
this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.
How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it
No other newsroom we read has filed on this event, so there is nothing to compare it with yet.
Readers can ask a question about this story here.
Questions and answers are for subscribers.
Sign in
to read them.
Comments are read before they appear where anything in them needs a person to look.
Nothing posted here is ever deleted; a comment taken down keeps its text and the reason,
so the decision can be looked at again. How this works