Apple on Wednesday stands on the brink of paying $400 million minimum in damages to the University of Wisconsin-Madison after a federal jury in the U.S. found the tech giant guilty of infringing one of the university’s patents.

Since Apple reported revenues of $49.6 billion for its fiscal 2015 third quarter ended June 27, losing $400 million isn’t the end of the world. And Apple’s certain to appeal the damages to be handed out Wednesday by a federal court judge in Madison, Wisconsin.

There’s also the principle of the thing. Apple has steadfastly denied throughout the trail it infringed on UW-Madison’s patent and argued the patent is invalid.

On Tuesday, a federal court in Madison said Apple violated a patent that helps improve chip efficiency. The technology invented by UW-Madison improves the performance and power-efficiency of CPUs.

The jury further ruled the patent held by the university’s Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) was valid. WARF is UW-Madison’s licensing arm.

In making its case against Apple, UW-Madison successfully argued Apple willfully stole the technology and that Apple also refused to license it from the university.

Earlier, U.S. District Judge William Conley, who presided over the case, said Apple could be liable for up to $862.4 million in damages. Conley also turned down a request by Apple to limit damages.

Sources, however, said that heading into the damages phase of the case this Wednesday, WARF's claim could be reduced to just $400 million, according to Reuters.

"WARF did prevail on liability but evidence regarding damages has yet to be presented”, said a WARF spokeswoman.

Is a lawsuit filed January 2014, WARF alleged Apple infringed on its 1998 patent for improving processor efficiency. The jury deliberated on whether Apple's A7, A8 and A8X processors used in the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus and several versions of the iPad violated WARF’s patent. WARF claims that Apple is using its patent in Apple’s latest A9 SoC (system-on-a-chip), said Computerworld.

WARF used the patent to sue Intel Corporation in 2008. This lawsuit, however, was settled before the case went to trial.

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