A US judge has ordered Apple to cough up US$145 million in damages for infringing two patents owned by Canadian firm WiLan.

WiLan began as a producer of broadband wireless technologies. Then the company shifted its focus to licensing its extensive patent portfolio and now touts itself as “one of the most successful patent licensing companies in the world” – or “patent troll” as some put it.

One patent in the Apple case relates to a “method and apparatus for bandwidth request protocols in a wireless communication system,” and the other is for “adaptive call admission control for use in a wireless communication system.” Apple plans to appeal the ruling.