Apple Inc. has been ordered to pay nearly $9 million in damages for infringing a ring-silencing patent with technology it incorporated into earlier versions of the iPhone.

A Delaware federal judge on Monday nearly tripled a $3 million jury verdict awarded to Ironworks Patents, a nonpracticing entity that acquired the patent from the original plaintiff in April. The award represented a 12.5-cent royalty for each of the 71.5 million iPhones that infringed on Ironwork's so-called “polite-ignore” patent.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson of the District of Delaware came on a batch of post-trial motions filed after a federal jury in September upheld the validity of the patent, which was then owned by MobileMedia Ideas.