Apple has been ordered to pay $5.7 billion (£4.3bn) after a US jury found that its Taptic Engine infringed two patents owned by Taction Technology.

The technology, used by millions of Apple users every day, has been at the centre of a major patent dispute, with Taction claiming Apple's haptic feedback system uses technology covered by its patents.

Apple disagrees with the verdict and has said it will appeal.

What is the Taptic Engine?

Apple's Taptic Engine creates vibrations in the iPhone and Apple Watch, allowing the company to create feedback for things such as notifications, interactions and buttons.

For example, if you wear an Apple Watch you may feel a vibration on your wrist whenever you receive a message from someone, or you might feel a small vibration from your iPhone when Face ID fails to authenticate.

The Taptic Engine first debuted in the original Apple Watch in 2014, before expanding to the iPhone.

This engine has become a core part of the iPhone and Apple Watch experience. Rather than simply making a device vibrate, Apple's haptic feedback can be precisely controlled to produce different sensations depending on what is happening on the device.

That technology is now at the centre of Apple's latest patent battle.

What does Taction claim?

Taction Technology is an audio company that produces headphones and gaming headsets, which sued Apple in 2021.

It alleged that Apple had infringed two of its haptic technology patents. They believe that Apple benefited from this technology as it developed more advanced haptic feedback across its devices.

Despite these claims, Apple said:

"Apple's Taptic Engine is fundamentally different from Taction's technology."

Dispute Timeline

In 2023, a San Diego judge ruled in Apple's favour, saying that Apple had not infringed Taction's patents. This ruling was appealed, which led to this jury trial.

The September 2026 jury ruled in Taction's favour and awarded $5.7 billion in damages. Though, the jury did not find that Apple had willingly infringed the patents.

What happens now?

Of course, nothing will happen to the Taptic Engine hardware already in the devices you own. The bigger concern is what happens next.

Apple plans to appeal the verdict, meaning the $5.7 billion that Apple has been ordered to pay is still not final. To put this into perspective, Apple reported a net profit of $29.8 Billion in Q3, a 4-month period, earlier this year and revenue over. $100 billion.