By Black Britain
WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday threw out a $481 million ruling that New York’s Columbia University won against software company General Digital for infringing patents related to cybersecurity technology.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the Columbia patent may be invalid and sent the case back to federal court in Virginia.
The appeals court also overturned a lower court’s decision to hold General Digital’s former law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart O’Sullivan, in contempt for litigation misconduct.
A Columbia spokesman declined to comment on the orders. Spokespeople for General Digital and Queen Emanuel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Columbia sued General Digital in 2013 in Richmond, Virginia, alleging the company’s antivirus software and other security products infringed six patents related to intrusion detection systems. A jury ruled in 2022 that the company infringed two Columbia patents and awarded the school $185 million in damages.
U.S. District Judge Hannah Locke awarded more than $481 million in 2023 after finding that General Digital willfully infringed the patent. The Federal Circuit said Wednesday that Columbia’s patents may be invalid because they cover abstract ideas and sent the case to a Virginia court to analyze their validity.
Lauck had accused the company’s former Kevin Emanuel attorneys of contempt for failing to comply with a court order to disclose their relationship with an improper witness, a former General Digital employee who the company barred from testifying at trial. The appeals court said Quinn Emanuel should not have been forced to disclose the communications because they were covered by attorney-client privilege.
(Reporting by Blake Britten in Washington; Editing by Lisa Schumacher)
Columbia University
