The logo of Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Nov 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of Google ( GOOGL.O ), overturning a jury’s $20 million patent verdict against the tech giant over anti-malware technology in its Chrome web browser.
The Supreme Court declined to review a US appeals court ruling that Alfonso Cioffi and Allen Rozman’s patents were invalid, ending a decade-long court battle between the inventors and Google.
A lawyer for the inventors did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Google spokesman said the company had no comment.
Cioffi and the late Rozman’s daughters sued Google in East Texas federal court in 2013, alleging that anti-malware features in Chrome infringed their patents on technology that prevents malware from accessing important files on a computer.
A jury ruled in favor of the inventors in 2017, awarding them $20 million in patent infringement damages plus ongoing royalties that their lawyer said at the time were expected to total nearly $7 million a year for the next nine years.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit invalidated the patents in April, voiding the ruling. The appeals court said the three patents, which were reissued from an earlier patent, did not meet the legal requirement to cover subject matter disclosed in the original patent.
The inventors said in their Supreme Court petition last month that the decision “sets up yet another barrier for patentees to obtain patent rights on inventions that would otherwise be considered novel and patentable.”
“This is the wrong direction for the U.S. patent system, which has been under siege for decades by large technology companies, such as Respondent, to weaken patents and the patent system for their own benefit,” the inventors told the judges.
Google did not respond to the petition.
The case is Cioffi v. Google LLC, US Supreme Court, No. 23-421.
To the inventors: Eric Benisek of Vasquez Benisek & Lindgren
For Google: Dan Bagatell of Perkins Coie
Read more:
Google wins appeal of $20 million US patent judgment over Chrome technology
Google ordered to pay co-inventors $20 million in patent case
Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington
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