Carnegie Mellon wins record patent lawsuit against Marvell

Ars Technica : A jury has awarded Carnegie Mellon University $1.17 billion in damages in the university’s patent infringement lawsuit against Marvell Superconductor. If the jury’s decision is not overturned or the penalty reduced, it will be the largest patent infringement fine ever, and will cost Marvell more than one year’s profits. At the heart of the lawsuit are two patents for reducing the noise that occurs when computers read hard disks. Carnegie Mellon alleged that Marvell sold 2.34 billion computer chips that violated the patents, while Marvell claimed it had patent rights that predated the university’s. The lawsuit itself highlights a growing trend of universities filing lawsuits over the patents they own. Because universities don’t produce any products from their patents, they have the benefit of not being targets of countersuits. However, large decisions and settlements such as this one are not yet common, and most universities end up spending more on their patents than they gain via litigation.