Vringo Inc. (VRNG) has asked a federal court to raise the
ongoing royalty rate to be paid by technology companies Google Inc.
(GOOG) and AOL Inc. (AOL) and others, arguing these companies have
continued to infringe on its patents.
Vringo, a mobile-technology and intellectual-property company,
said a federal court has ordered Google, AOL and other companies to
respond to Vringo's motion for postjudgment royalties within 15
days. In November, Vringo was awarded about $30 million in damages
and granted future royalties by a federal jury in its patent suit
against Google, AOL and others.
The company Wednesday said it presented evidence at trial that
the appropriate way to determine the incremental royalty base
attributable to Google's infringement was to calculate 20.9% of
Google's U.S. AdWords revenue, then apply a 3.5% running royalty
rate to that base.
Vringo has asked the court to order the defendants to pay
ongoing running royalties for their infringement of its patents
from Nov. 20, 2012, until April 4, 2016, the patents' expiration
dates, or when the defendants cease infringement of the
patents.
The company has thus requested the court rate the defendants'
ongoing royalty rate to 7%, arguing that these companies' ongoing
patent infringement is willful.
Vringo also said the court denied the company's motion for a new
trial on the dollar ammount of past damages.
A Google representative wasn't immediately available for
comment.
Vringo sued Google--the primary defendant--as well as AOL,
IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI) and others, alleging infringement of
two of its patents used to select and position advertising on
Internet-search results. AOL earlier settled a portion of the suit
for $100,000.
In November, Vringo was awarded a 3.5% running royalty rate off
a portion of the defendants' search-advertising revenue until the
patents expire in 2016.
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 that the
technology it owns is widely used in the search industry.
Vringo shares, which were briefly halted, climbed 7.5% to $3.30
in recent trading Wednesday. The stock is up 16% year-to-date.
-Write to Nathalie Tadena at nathalie.tadena@dowjones.com
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