A federal jury in Pennsylvania on Wednesday ordered Marvell Technology Group,Ltd., to pay $1.17 billion in damages after finding it infringed on two patents held by Carnegie Mellon University.
A lawsuit filed in 2009 by the Pittsburgh university claimed that Marvell infringed on its patented technology fundamental for "increasing the accuracywith which hard disk drivecircuits read data from high-speed magnetic disks," according to a pressrelease from K&L Gates, thelaw firm representing Carnegie Mellon.
The damages could be increased by as much as three times by U.S. District Court judge Nora Barry Fischer since the jury found chipmaker Marvell's infringements were willful, according to K&L Gates.
The jury also found Marvell sold billions of chips incorporating the university's technology without a license to do so, according to K&L Gates.
Marvell has denied the claim.
