Big Numbers in Some Recent Patent Cases

The past few weeks have witnessed at least five multimillion dollar awards or settlements in patent or patent-related matters.  Without going into great depth about any of them, I thought it might be useful just to list them here, with some citations to further commentary.

1.   On July 27, a Delaware jury awarded IBM $82.5 million in a patent infringement case against Groupon.  The four patents in suit are all software/business method patents.  The jury also concluded that Groupon's infringement was willful, so there could be an enhancement yet to come.  For coverage, see articles on Bloomberg, CNET, IPWatchdog, and Law360.

2.  On August 1, a San Diego jury awarded Wilan $145 million in a suit against Apple, for the infringement of two patents related to wireless communications.  For coverage, see articles in Law360, the New York Times, and Reuters.

3.  On August 6, Arista agreed to pay Cisco $400 million to settle certain pending patent, copyright, and antitrust claims between the two firms.  For coverage, see articles in IPWatchdog, Law360,  Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal.

4.  On August 7, a jury in Chicago awarded three firms a total of $315 million in an antitrust action Scientific Games Corp., based on the latter's allegedly having engaged in sham litigation involving automatic card shufflers.  For coverage, see articles in Casino.org, Law360, and Reuters.

5.  On August 9, Qualcomm settled with the Government of Taiwan, in an antitrust dispute involving the licensing of Qualcomm patents in which the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission had previously leveled a $773 million fine.  The government will keep $93 million Qualcomm has already paid, and Qualcomm agreed to certain conditions in exchange, including investment in Taiwan.  For coverage, see articles in Bloomberg, IPWatchdog, and the Wall Street Journal.