--Vringo says Google, AOL, others have continued to infringe on
its patents
--Company has requested the court to raise the defendants'
ongoing royalty rate to 7%
--Google says it is 'confident that the patents here are
invalid, that we did not infringe them, and that we will ultimately
win this case'
(Updates with Google response in seventh paragraph and Vringo
closing share price in final paragraph.)
By Nathalie Tadena
Vringo Inc. (VRNG) has asked a federal court to raise the
ongoing royalty rate to be paid by technology companies Google Inc.
(GOOG), AOL Inc. (AOL) and others, arguing these companies have
continued to infringe on its patents.
Vringo, a mobile-technology and intellectual-property company,
said a federal court has ordered Google, AOL and other companies to
respond to Vringo's motion for postjudgment royalties within 15
days. In November, Vringo was awarded about $30 million in damages
and granted future royalties by a federal jury in its patent suit
against these companies.
The company Wednesday said it presented evidence at trial that
the appropriate way to determine the incremental royalty base
attributable to Google's infringement was to calculate 20.9% of
Google's U.S. AdWords revenue, then apply a 3.5% running royalty
rate to that base.
Vringo has asked the court to order the defendants to pay
ongoing running royalties for their infringement of its patents
from Nov. 20, 2012, until April 4, 2016, the patents' expiration
dates, or when the defendants cease infringement of the
patents.
The company has thus requested the court to raise the
defendants' ongoing royalty rate to 7%, arguing these companies'
ongoing patent infringement is willful.
Vringo also said the court denied the company's motion for a new
trial on the dollar amount of past damages.
"We remain confident that the patents here are invalid, that we
did not infringe them, and that we will ultimately win this case,"
Google said.
Vringo sued Google--the primary defendant--as well as AOL,
IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI) and others, alleging infringement of
two of its patents used to select and position advertising on
Internet-search results. AOL earlier settled a portion of the suit
for $100,000.
In November, Vringo was awarded a 3.5% running royalty rate off
a portion of the defendants' search-advertising revenue until the
patents expire in 2016.
Vringo was founded in 2006 with a focus on mobile technology,
but last year it agreed to merge with privately held
Innovate/Protect, which now controls most of the company and
brought it into the intellectual-property industry.
Innovate/Protect, which bought the two contested patents from Lycos
Inc. along with six others for $3.2 million, has alleged the
technology it owns is widely used in the search industry.
Vringo shares climbed 7.5% to $3.30 in regular session trading
Wednesday. The stock is up 15% year to date.
Write to Nathalie Tadena at nathalie.tadena@dowjones.com
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