Court Rules Google Must Pay Millions To Tiny Vringo, Alleged Patent Troll

Small patent-assertion firm Vringo scored a victory in court against Google this week that could be worth hundreds of millions. A U.S. District Judge ruled that in its AdWords program, Google infringed on patents that Vringo purchased from Lycos, an old search engine, in 2011. The payout: a 1.36 percent running royalty on U.S.-based revenue from AdWords. Though Google’s earnings from that flagship ad program are not clear, there’s no doubt the ruling would pocket hundreds of millions for Vringo. Google has said it plans to appeal the decision to the Federal Circuit.