The jury decided that Luxembourg-based patent owner Arendi
SARL's patent was invalid and that Google did not infringe it, according to the
verdict made public on Wednesday.
Attorneys for Arendi did not immediately respond to a
request for comment. Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the company was
pleased with the decision and appreciated the jury's "careful attention to
the extensive evidence presented in this case."
Norwegian inventor Atle Hedloy's Arendi sued Google in 2013
over the patent, which relates to retrieving information like names and
addresses from a database and entering it into word processors and
spreadsheets.
Arendi alleged that Google's mobile devices and apps
including Gmail, Chrome, Docs, and Messages infringed. It asked the court for
$45.5 million in damages, according to a spokesperson for Google's law firm
Paul Hastings.
The jury determined that Google did not infringe Arendi's
patent and agreed with Google's argument that the patent was invalid based on
earlier publications that disclosed the same invention.
Arendi has also sued other tech companies including Apple,
Microsoft, and Samsung Electronics over related patents. Those cases have all
been dismissed or resolved. © Reuters