IP licensing firm SimpleAir wants $125M in damages from Google
Fighting patent trolls
SimpleAir, a licensing company for intellectual property in the mobile and wireless content delivery space, has scored a major legal victory over Internet giant Google.
A federal jury at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas came back with a verdict in favor of the inventor-owned firm, finding that that Google infringed upon one of SimpleAir's patent portfolio.
The patent in question is U.S. Patent No. 7,035,914, defined as "a system and method for data communication connecting on-line networks with on-line and off-line computers."
SimpleAir argued that Google infringed upon at least five of the claims in the patent by implementing the technology in push notifications on Android smartphones and tablets -- specifically via Google Cloud Messaging and Android Cloud to Device Messaging.
That includes notifications from some very widely-used apps, such as Gmail and Facebook.
The jury actually came up with a decision last Saturday. However, it was not entirely smooth sailing for SimpleAir.
The jury agreed unanimously on all counts of infringement and that each claim was valid. But the jury could not come to a unified decision on damages.
Thus, SimpleAir announced on Wednesday that it would be seeking approximately $125 million in damages from the Mountain View, Calif.-headquartered corporation.
SimpleAir has said that it has at least eight patents in its portfolio, putting Apple alone in the spotlight on its website as a major licensee.
According to court documents, SimpleAir has been involved in a few patent-related suits lately. Aside from Google, other opponents have included Google subsidiaries Motorola Mobility and YouTube as well as Microsoft and Huawei.