US District Court Judge Rodney Gilstrap stopped short of throwing out the liability finding. This means that Apple is still as guilty as sin and will have to pay something,

Gilstrap said the Jury should have been allowed to consider whether the royalty demand was consistent with a requirement that standard-essential patents be licensed on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" or FRAND, terms.

Optis and its partners in the case, PanOptis Patent Management and Unwired Planet claimed that Apple's smartphones, watches, and tablets that operate over the LTE cellular standard were using its patented technology.

Apple was hit with damages awards of $502.8 million in a decade-long battle over security communications technology, and $308.5 million in a case over digital rights management