Damages Reduced in Billion-Dollar Infringement Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has significantly reduced the $1.54 billion ruling levied against Marvell Technology Group Ltd. for infringing on a patent held by Carnegie Mellon University. A Pittsburgh federal jury ruled that Marvell owed a 50-cent royalty for each of the 2.2 billion chips the company had sold that infringed on CMU’s patent for reading hard drive data. A district judge subsequently found that Marvell’s infringement was “willful,” and enhanced the damages by 23 percent, to $1.54 billion. The Appeals Court removed the “willfulness” finding, reducing the award by more than $1.25 billion, and ordered a partial retrial.