Canadian IP holding company WiLAN Inc. has taken a haircut in a patent retrial with Apple Inc. over voice-over-LTE (VOLTE) technology.

But it's a haircut almost any patent owner would gladly accept. A San Diego jury handed Ottawa-based WiLAN an $85 million award for infringement on Friday.

That's less than the $145 million verdict WiLAN had won in 2018 that was later set aside by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw. But it's a lot more than the $10 million that Apple said last year should be the maximum award.

"This was an important trial to determine the jury's award of damages for the infringement of WiLAN's novel wireless patents," said Mike McKool, chairman of McKool Smith and part of WiLAN's trial team. "The jury worked hard to weigh the evidence in this case and our client is very pleased with the verdict."

U.S. Patents 8,457,145 and 8,537,757 originated at San Diego startup Ensemble Communications. WiLAN's Chief Technology Officer Ken Stanwood is the named inventor on the patents, which help 4G cellular devices make uninterrupted high-quality voice calls while simultaneously uploading and downloading data for applications.

WiLAN acquired Ensemble and its IP in the early 2000s and Stanwood now serves as CTO of WiLAN, which is a subsidiary of Quarterhill Inc. The company sued Apple in 2014, alleging that various versions of the iPhone 6 and 7 infringed the patents.

Following the 2018 verdict, Sabraw upheld the jury's finding of infringement but ruled that WiLAN had improperly claimed damages for all of VOLTE, whereas Ensemble had invented only part of it. He ordered the company to accept Apple's offer of $10 million or elect a new trial on damages. Wi-LAN chose the latter.

Apple argued before and during the retrial that WiLAN has never properly apportioned the value of its technology from the accused iPhones. "JMOL of zero damages thus should be entered in Apple's favor," the company argued in a brief filed Wednesday.

McKool Smith's team also included partners Scott Cole, Brett Cooper, Warren Lipschitz, Ashley Moore, Jonathan Yim and Seth Hasenour, and associates Christopher McNett and Drew Hollander.

Apple was represented by DLA Piper.