$2 Billion Damages Award For Patent Infringement

One of the largest damages amounts ever for patent infringement was awarded on March 2 in the Western District of Texas. A jury directed Intel to pay $2.175 billion to VLSI Technologies. The suit moved through court in less than two years, and according to IPWatchdog, marks a milestone in the effort “to address corporate business models employing ‘efficient infringement’ techniques to earn dominant market positions, not as innovators, but as tech implementers.” The original complaint states that Intel’s well-known policy forbidding employees from reading patents held by outside companies means that the alleged infringement is a case of willful blindness. Intel takes strong exception to the verdict and will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which routinely reverses large patent infringement damages awarded by district courts.