A federal jury in Los Angeles has found that Apple Inc. and Broadcom Inc. infringed upon patents belonging to the California Institute of Technology, ordering the two tech behemoths to pay a combined $1.1 billion to the university.

The jurors issued the ruling late Wednesday after about five hours of deliberation.

The case, which was brought by Caltech in 2016, centers on four patents related to the transmission of digital data that the university received between 2006 and 2012. Caltech successfully argued before the court that hundreds of millions of Apple devices take advantage of the methods covered by the patents to power WiFi connections. 

Broadcom was caught up in the litigation because most Apple devices use its chips to provide WiFi connectivity. The verdict orders the iPhone maker to pay $837.8 million, or $1.4  per device, while Broadcom is on the hook for the remaining $270.2 million. 

“We are pleased the jury found that Apple and Broadcom infringed Caltech patents,” CalTech said in a statement. “As a nonprofit institution of higher education, Caltech is committed to protecting its intellectual property in furtherance of its mission to expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education.”

Apple, for its part, said it will appeal the verdict. The iPhone maker’s decision to dispute the ruling is not surprising since it argued in court that all the patent violations are attributable to Broadcom’s WiFi chips. Apple claimed that it was “merely an indirect downstream party” caught up in the legal crossfire.

The verdict comes less than a week after the iPhone maker suffered a loss in a similar case over wireless communications patents. Southern California’s district court ruled that Apple must pay Wi-LAN Inc., an arm of Canadian intellectual property licensing firm Quarterhill Inc., $85 million for a pair of patents issued in 2001 and  2009. Wi-LAN had originated sought damages of $145.1 million, but Apple convinced the court that the penalty should be reduced by arguing Wi-LAN incorrectly calculated the sum owed. 

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