Last night around midnight the jury in z4 Technologies, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp. & Autodesk, Inc. returned a jury verdict for the plaintiff for $133 million. The case was tried to a Tyler Division jury before Judge Leonard Davis.
Jury found that Microsoft infringed three claims on two patents and that its infringement was willful. Jury found that Autodesk infringed two claims (the third claim and willfulness were not submitted as to Autodesk). Jury found that defendants had not shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the patent was invalid. Damages were $115 million against Microsoft and $15 million against Autodesk.
This is the 16th verdict in a Eastern District patent case since 1999. It is the second jury verdict in a Tyler Division case. It is believed to be the largest amount awarded by a jury in a patent case, exceeding last week's TiVo v. Echostar verdict of approximately $73 million. It is not the largest verdict, however - the Intel v. Intergraph case was $150 million, but that was not set by a jury - the parties stipulated as to the amount of damages pretrial.
The Court's press release regarding the verdict is available online at http://207.41.16.103/BreakingNews/patent%20advisory.pdf (Note: the original link no longer works, but the press release can be viewed here - Download microsoft_verdict_press_release.pdf )
