Carnegie Mellon University won their patent infringement case against Marvell Technology Group Ltd. A federal judge upheld a decision earlier made by a jury in December last year which awarded USD 1.17 billion to the Pittsburgh university.
Marvell was sued by Carnegie Mellon in March 2009 on the technology it developed regarding the accuracy with which hard disk drive circuits were able to read data taken from high-speed magnetic disks. The patents for the technology were issued to Carnegie in 2001 and 2002. According to the university, nine circuit devices from Marvell used the patents and sold billions of these chips without their permission.
After the case was decided by the jury, Marvell wanted the judge to declare a mistrial because Carnegie's lawyer made closing arguments that "inflamed" the jury members. Federal District Judge Nora Barry Fischer, however, wrote in her decision, "Marvell, in throwing old and new grievances at the court under the guise of prejudice, is trying to do what it could not do at trial: convince the court to throw out this case and hope that a second time around will be more successful."
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