I'm going to continue to do short posts when I see big verdicts or settlements in IP lawsuits, with the hope that over time the verdicts & settlements category grows into a useful database of the larger verdicts.
Last Friday, Cornell University won $184 million from a hometown jury (Northern District of New York). The patent in question was invented by Cornell Professor Hwa C. Torng, described in U.S. Patent No. 4807115, "Instruction issuing mechanism for processors with multiple functional units," issued 1989. Press reports from Newsday and the Syracuse Post-Standard say Cornell originally asked for $900 million in damages; IPlaw360 says that number is a mistake, and the damages request was $575 million.
The jury also ruled that infringement was not willful. They calculated damages based on a 0.8% royalty for $23 billion in sales. Cornell says they will appeal. H-P also argued they were protected by patent exhaustion and implied licenses, but the jury rejected those defenses.
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