Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — A US jury has ordered Apple to pay US$5.7 billion after finding that the company infringed patents held by audio company Taction Technology covering haptic feedback technology. However, the jury did not find that Apple had infringed the patents willfully.
Taction Technology filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2021, alleging infringement of two patents it owns covering haptic feedback systems. The technology enables devices to transmit physical sensations to users through vibrations and is used, in particular, in smartphones and smartwatches.
The company claimed that Apple had used its inventions without a license or authorization, while improvements to vibration technology in its devices had enhanced user interaction with Apple products.
Apple disagreed with the jury’s findings and said it planned to appeal the verdict. The company stressed that its Taptic Engine system is fundamentally different from Taction’s technology and that the results of Apple product tests conducted by Taction during the proceedings confirmed this.
The Taptic Engine system first appeared in the Apple Watch in 2014. Apple subsequently continued to develop the technology and expand the capabilities of haptic feedback in its devices.
Taction said the patents issued to the company in 2020 cover technologies that Apple used in its devices after further developing them.
In 2023, a judge in San Diego ruled that Apple had not infringed Taction’s patents. After that decision was appealed, the case was sent back for a new trial. In September, a jury trial was held in the US District Court for the Southern District of California, with the jury ruling in favor of Taction.
Haptic feedback has become a widespread technology in modern electronics. Small vibration motors in smartphones, watches and gaming controllers respond to specific electronic signals, allowing users to receive physical confirmation of actions they perform.
The Taction case was one of several major patent disputes in which Apple has defended its technologies.
In November 2025, a court ordered the company to pay US$634 million to medical technology company Masimo in a case involving infringement of a patent covering technology for measuring blood oxygen levels.
