A federal jury in Pennsylvania has handed Comcast a $240 million defeat, finding the telecommunications behemoth willfully infringed a patent tied to voice recognition technology—while clearing it on a second patent—after years of courtroom sparring.
Like a long-running chess match that suddenly ends in checkmate, the verdict landed Friday when jurors awarded Promptu Systems Corp. $240 million on one of the two patents at issue. Jurors concluded Comcast’s infringement was willful, according to a statement released by Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP. As of Tuesday, the jury’s full verdict remained under seal.
One Patent Falls, One Survives
The case revolved around U.S. Patent Nos. 7,047,196 and 7,260,538, both covering voice-driven technology. Jurors ruled that the claims of the ’196 patent were invalid, wiping out liability on that front. The infringement finding—and the hefty damages—rested solely on the ’538 patent.
“After nearly a decade of litigation, this verdict stands as a powerful affirmation of Promptu’s pioneering work in voice-powered TV interfaces,” said Jacob Schroeder, an attorney for Promptu, in a statement. He praised the jury’s “meticulous, sustained attention to the evidence,” likening the outcome to long-overdue recognition of Promptu’s innovations.
