Alphabet's Google LLC on Tuesday convinced a U.S. appeals court to cancel three anti-malware patents at the heart of a Texas jury's $20 million infringement verdict against the company.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that
Alfonso Cioffi and Allen Rozman's patents were invalid because they contained
inventions that were not included in an earlier version of the patent.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the company
appreciated the decision. Representatives for the inventors did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
Cioffi and the late Rozman's daughters sued Google in East
Texas federal court in 2013, alleging anti-malware functions in Google's Chrome
web browser infringed their patents for technology that prevents malware from
accessing critical files on a computer.
A jury decided in 2017 that Google infringed the patents and
awarded the plaintiffs $20 million plus ongoing royalties, which their attorney
said at the time were expected to total about $7 million per year for the next
nine years.
But the Federal Circuit said Tuesday that all of the patents
were invalid. The three patents were reissued from an earlier anti-malware
patent, and federal law required the new patents to cover the same invention as
the first, the unanimous three-judge panel concluded.
The appeals court said the new patents outlined technology
specific to web browsers that the first patent did not mention.
The case is Cioffi v. Google LLC, U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Federal Circuit, No. 18-1049.