Yahoo was found guilty by an Oakland federal jury Tuesday of infringing Droplet Inc.’s patented technology for speeding up web page updates, and was found to owe $15 million, much less than the initially sought $260 million in damages.
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The three-week trial ended after seven hours of deliberation. The nine-member jury reached the unanimous decision that Droplet sufficiently proved it was more likely than not that Yahoo infringed one claim of the patent-at-issue for Yahoo Search Assist, however they found against Droplets on claims made against four additional Yahoo products.
During closing arguments a lawyer for Droplets urged the jury to hand Yahoo a $260 million verdict for “free-riding” on Droplets’ intellectual property and then “bullying” his client.
“We feel really good; we feel really happy. They had done something special and then somebody was trying to take that away from them,” Reichman said. “I think the jury considers $15 million a lot of money, and so do we.”
Droplets sued Yahoo among a group of other tech giants including Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and YouTube, with each of the other companies settling.
During closing arguments, an attorney for Droplets told jurors that the patented invention is central to the tech company’s “Search Suggest” function. By making searching easier and faster for users, Yahoo generates more user, and that results in the ability to charge more for advertising, Reichman said.
During the trial, Droplets’ expert testified that Yahoo had made $868 million in profits from the invention and that Droplets’ contribution deserved at least 30% in revenue.
Reichman told the jury on that they were the entity responsible for policing Droplets’ patent and its uses.
“You’re the only way for someone who has property … [to] stop people from free-riding on it,” Reichman stated. “From taking and using your property, squatting on it, and then make a bunch of excuses and bullying you by saying nobody’s ever heard of Droplets.”
Droplets co-founder Philip Brittan took the stand during trial and testified that he and his colleagues came up with the idea behind its patented website technology while attempting to create an application to easily post financial data and records for a company they previously founded.
Yahoo’s lawyer, Woody Jameson, told jurors during closing arguments that his client’s case on infringement is so strong, the company decided to drop its invalidity defense.
Jameson says now Droplets is asking Yahoo for a “ridiculous” amount of money, considering when Adobe, which acquired Macromedia, settled the patent dispute brought for only $10 million.
“This is the company that destroyed Droplets, we heard in closing,” Yahoo’s lawyer said. “Adobe paid $10 million … that’s a data point you can’t walk away from.”
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