Apple is spending millions of dollars on legal fees in Australia as it prepares for an important appeals hearing, in what appears to be a determined effort to prevent a local company’s earlier Federal Court decision from being overturned.

Legal representatives for Apple are commanding high fees, with the company’s bill for the two-day Federal Court hearing set down for March already reported at around $8.6 million. Apple’s legal team has also claimed tens of thousands more during December and January 2026 in preparation for the appeal.

Before the hearing, Apple sought an order from the Federal Court requiring $1 million in security for costs — a security payment intended to protect Apple in case it ultimately succeeded and CPC was unable to pay Apple’s costs. Justice Nicholas Owens rejected that request, instead ordering a much smaller security payment of $275,000.

The case was brought by CPC Patent Technologies Pty Ltd, a company that owns patents related to Touch ID and Face ID technologies, which it alleges Apple has used in its devices without permission.

The original trial before Federal Court Judge Stephen Burley resulted in a loss for CPC. In May 2025, Judge Burley held that Apple’s Touch ID and Face ID technology did not infringe the asserted patents, finding that the accused Apple devices did not fall within the language of the patent claims.

Apple has since filed a cross-appeal, and the Full Court of the Federal Court has scheduled a two-day appeal hearing in March 2026. Apple has engaged three senior counsel for the appeal.

In seeking security for costs, Apple’s lead counsel, Angus Lang, told the Court that CPC’s business appears primarily to involve litigation, and mentioned that CPC reportedly has multiple litigation funders. He also said Apple had incurred around $8.69 million in legal costs in the initial trial.

Counsel for CPC argued that requiring $1 million in security for a two-day appeal was excessive, especially given the broad and unsupported nature of Apple’s claimed costs. The Court also heard that Apple’s lawyers had claimed more than $665,000 in legal fees for solicitors and counsel during December and January without much detailed breakdown.

CPC initially sued Apple in 2021, alleging that dozens of Apple devices equipped with Touch ID and Face ID had been sold in Australia since 2014 and that those devices infringed two of CPC’s patents. The patents, both entitled “remote entry systems”, have a priority date of 13 August 2004 and relate to systems that use wireless transmissions of security codes and biometric signals — technology that enables users to unlock a device with fingerprints or facial recognition.