Feb 22 (Reuters) – A federal judge in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday denied a request by Meta Platforms Inc (MetaO) to overturn a jury’s $175 million patent award against Voxer Inc.
In the decision by US District Judge Lee Yeakel, the jury found that Meta Live and Instagram Live’s streaming technology infringed two of Voxer’s patents related to video streaming and messaging. META’s decision can still be appealed to a higher court.
Representatives for Meta and Voxer did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
A 2020 lawsuit by San Francisco-based Voxer said its representatives disclosed its proprietary technology to Meta, then Facebook, when the two companies met in 2012 about a possible collaboration.
Voxer said Facebook cut it from core features of the social media platform in 2013 and abused its technology for Facebook Live and Instagram Live, which launched in 2015 and 2016.
Last September, a jury found that Meta had infringed two patents, one related to a video streaming method and video messaging service infrastructure, and awarded Voxer $174.5 million in equity damages.
Meta asked the court to overturn the verdict or hold a new trial. It made several arguments, including that a reasonable jury could not have found infringement, that the patents were invalid, that the damages were unreasonable, and that Voxer’s attorney had made “inappropriate remarks” that biased the jury against Matt.
Yeakel rejected META’s requests on Tuesday, saying there was enough evidence to support the jury’s decision.
The case is Voxer Inc. v. Meta Platforms Inc., U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 1: 20-cv-00655.
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