Washington, Oct 18 (IANS/EFE): A US federal jury ordered Apple Inc. to pay a research foundation linked to the University of Wisconsin more than $234 million in damages for patent infringement.

The US District Court jury in Madison, Wisconsin, ruled on Tuesday in favour of the body that safeguards the intellectual property of the university's researchers, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which had brought suit against the Cupertino, California-based tech giant in 2014.

The foundation alleged that Apple's use of processors in several iPad and iPhone models infringed on a 1998 patent held by the university.

Although it ruled in favour of the foundation, the damages award handed down on Friday was far less than the up to $862.4 million the plaintiffs were seeking, EFE reported on Saturday.

The foundation also sued US multinational chip maker Intel in 2008 over the same patent, a case that was settled out of court the following year for an undisclosed sum.

Apple has been immersed for years in a legal dispute with South Korean rival Samsung over patents.

A US federal appeals court recently found that Samsung had infringed on several Apple-held patents for features of its iPhone but also ruled it had not diluted the "trade dress", or the overall look and feel, of that flagship device, a decision that reduced a damages award from just under $1 billion to around $547 million.

Apple said it would appeal the trade-dress ruling.