Google, others lose Vringo suit, must pay $30 million
updated 01:25 pm EST, Wed November 7, 2012
Google had moved to dismiss patent suit based on Lycos tech
Google and four other companies were found by a jury in Virginia to have infringed on patents held by Vringo, and the companies must now pay Vringo about $30 million for those infringements. First filed in 2011, the lawsuit also included AOL, IAC Search & Media, and Gannett, and Target Corp. Of the $30 million fine, Google will pay $15.8 million, AOL $7.9 million, IAC Search & Media $6.6 million, and Gannet $4,322. Vringo had been hoping for at least $696 million in compensation from the judgment.
The case against Google involved patents formerly held by Lycos, one of the biggest search engines of the 1990s. Innovate/Protect initially filed the patent case last year, and Vringo continued it when it purchased the firm.
The patents in question had been developed by former Lycos Chief Technology Officers Andrew Lang and Donald Kosak. Vringo alleged that Google and others were using the patents to serve advertisements to users, resulting in over $38 billion a year for the search giant.
The court-appointed jury in the case upheld Vringo's patents and confirmed their infringement by Google and others. The jury found, according to Reuters, that reasonable royalty damages would be based on a "running royalty" rate of 3.5 percent.
