Jury orders LG to pay $45m over 'plug-and-play' patent
A US jury has ordered LG Electronics to pay $45 million in damages for wilful infringement of a patent owned by UK-based Mondis Technology and Japanese company Maxell Holdings.
The jury at the US District Court for the District of New Jersey found on Tuesday, April 9, that LG had infringed the patent and also failed to prove that two of the patent’s claims were invalid.
On Friday, April 12, the jury determined LG was to pay a damages award of $45 million to the plaintiffs.
Mondis claimed that LG sold televisions and computer monitors equipped with its invention to enable “plug-and-play” functionality.
The patent (US number 7,475,180) relates to methods for enabling “a display and an attached video source to readily communicate with one another”.
Maxell assigned the patent to Mondis in 2007. The UK company then granted Maxell a licence for the patent.
Litigation between the parties over the patent dates back to 2014, while the damages award follows an amended complaint submitted by Mondis and Maxell last month.
Mondis and LG settled a dispute in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in 2009 over LG computer monitors which Mondis said infringed patents “in the same family as the ‘180 patent”.
According to Mondis, the two companies engaged in negotiations over LG’s need to obtain a licence for use of the claimed technology in television products.
In its complaint, Mondis said that at no point did it grant LG a license to the ‘108 patent with respect to televisions.
WIPR has contacted LG Electronics for comment.
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