By Ben Fox Rubin
Vringo Inc. (VRNG) is making a new attempt to capture a large
chunk of past damages it sought in a patent suit against Google
Inc. (GOOG) and others, appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals a
federal court decision in the case.
Vringo, a mobile-technology and intellectual-property company,
in November won about $30 million in damages and was granted future
royalties from its patent suit against Google--the primary
defendant--as well as AOL Inc. (AOL), IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI)
and others. However, the court prevented Vringo from being awarded
any potential damages for the time prior to when it filed its suit,
citing a long delay in filing its claims. The ruling was a
significant blow for Vringo, which sought to receive hundreds of
millions of dollars in past damages.
Vringo is now appealing that ruling, as well as this week's
court decision denying it a motion for a new trial on the dollar
amount of past damages.
The appeals come after Vringo this week also asked a federal
court to raise the royalty rate it was awarded, arguing the
defendants have continued to infringe on its patents.
The company had claimed that the defendants infringed on two of
its patents used to select and position advertising on
Internet-search results. As it has stated in the past, Google said
Wednesday that it remained confident that Vringo's patents are
invalid and Google didn't infringe them, saying it will ultimately
win the case.
A Google representative wasn't immediately available for comment
Thursday.
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.
Since winning the Google suit, Vringo sued Microsoft Corp.
(MSFT), alleging infringement of the same two patents. Recent court
papers in that case indicated that the two parties have been in
settlement discussions.
Vringo's shares closed Wednesday at $3.30 and were down 1.2%
premarket. The stock is up 15% so far this year.
Write to Ben Fox Rubin at ben.rubin@dowjones.com
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