Posted in: Mobile hardware

Marvell hit with $1.54 billion court verdict for willful patent infringement

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A District court in Pittsburgh has ruled today that U.S. semiconductor company Marvell has knowingly infringed on two hard disk patents held by Carnegie Mellon University.

Judge Nora Barry Fischer has ruled that the university has proven that the manufacturer has deliberately copied its patents, awarding enhanced damages to the extent of $1.54 billion.

Judge Fischer found the evidence so overwhelming that she has awarded enhanced damages greater 1.23 times greater than that $1.17 billion the jury awarded the University back in December 2012. This also includes another $79.6 million in damages for additional infringements.

The patents in question involved methods by which hard drive circuits read data from magnetic disks and have been incorporated into at least nine Marvell circuits, allowing the company to sell billions of chips. Marvell is also the company an SoC configuration licensed to numerous mobile device manufacturers like Samsung and HP.

While the amount is certainly nothing to take lightly, the Judge apparently still went easy on the Santa Clara-based chip manufacturer, as Carnegie Mellon had wanted two or three times the amount of awarded damages.

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