Google wins $20 million US patent appeal

Google LLC, a subsidiary of Alphabet, on April 18 won a U.S. appeals court's decision to void three anti-malware patents that were found liable for $20 million in damages by a Texas jury.

According to the Federal Circuit, Alfonso Cioffi and Allen Rozman's patents were invalid because they contained inventions not included in an earlier version.

José Castaeda, a Google spokesperson, thanked the decision. Representatives for the inventors did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google's Chrome web browser was sued in 2013 by Cioffi and the late Rozman's daughters for infringing their patents for preventing malware from accessing critical files.

A jury ruled in 2017 that Google had infringed the plaintiffs' patents, awarding them $20 million plus ongoing royalties that were forecast to total $7 million per year for the next nine years.

However, the Federal Circuit ruled on Tuesday that all patents were invalid. A unanimous three-judge panel ruled that the three patents were reissues of an earlier anti-malware patent, and the new patents had to cover the same invention as the first.