A United States Court on Friday found Apple guilty of copyright infringement and has ordered the company to pay damages to the patent's owner - the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The technology firm was found guilty of using the University's patent on microchip without its knowledge at that time.

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Reuters reported that patent was incorporated in iPhones and iPads to make them more efficient. Originally, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) was asking for $400 million after a guilty verdict was handed to Apple.

The company would not provide an official statement regarding the matter but declared that they would appeal the decision.

The University of Winconsin-Madison alumni foundation's spokesperson Carl Gulbrandsen praised the court's verdict and emphasized the need to protect the rights of patent holders against company's such as Apple.

The case was started last year when the foundation discovered that Apple used one of its patent called the "predictor circuit"

The circuit was reportedly used in several of Apple's processors of iPhones and iPads and the foundation claims this infringed on their patent.

Apple's legal counsel did not dispute the charge but tried to reduce the amount of damages it will pay to the University. The company said that the cost of the patent is roughly equivalent to less than 10 cents for every Apple product unit using the technology. WARF is claiming that cost is around $2.75.

Seven years ago Intel paid WARF more than $100 million to settle a copyright infringement case involving the same patent.

Although Apple was found guilty of copyright infringement, the presiding judge ruled that the tech company did not deliberately infringe on the university's patent. That decision has at least spared Apple from the threat of even bigger payment in damages.

WARF filed another case against Apple in September involving the company's latest products such as the iPad Pro and iPhone 6 series.

The predictor circuit is the work of Wisconsin-Madison University professor Gurindar Sohi and several of his students. The university patented the work 15 years ago.

WARF uses a substantial part of its profit to give yearly handouts, grants or donations to the University.

TagsApple sued, apple's copyright infringement, WARF, Wisconsin alumni research foundation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, iphone and ipad, predictor circuit, gurindar sohi