In December 2008, a jury in Chicago, Illinois awarded independent inventor Jacob Krippelz $23 million in royalties after determining Ford Motor Company infringed his patent related to a lighting system. In November 2009, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois more than doubled the award because it believed Ford willfully infringed the patent when selling vehicles with similar lamps even when the company knew Krippelz’s patent and possible infringement.

Krippelz patented the car-door lights, known as “puddle lamps,” in 1991. He sent a copy of the patent-at-issue, US Patent No. 5,017,903, to Ford after it was issued. Ford told him it was not interested in the invention but, six years later, Krippelz saw the lamps on a Ford vehicle. Krippelz filed the patent infringement lawsuit in 1998.
Source(s):  Sachdev, Ameet, “Ford ordered to pay Aurora man $55.6 million in patent dispute,” Chicago Tribute, November 25, 2009 (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-wed-ford-patentnov25,0,2535447.story); “Ford $23M puddle lamp infringement is willful: court,” Law 360, Marcy 27, 2009 (http://www.bartlit-beck.com/assets/attachments/Ford_$23M_Puddle_Lamp_Infringement_Is_Willful-_Court.pdf).

On November 17, 2009, Modavox, Inc. filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States District Court, Northern District of California against Yahoo! Inc., claiming the company profited from using patented technology related to adding functions to a web page.

Modavox claims Yahoo!’s advertising strategy infringes the two patents-at-issue, US Patent No. 6,594,691 entitled, “Method and System for Adding Function to a Web Page” and US Patent No. 7,269,636 entitled, “Method and Code Module For Adding Function to a Web Page.”

Modavox seeks an injunction, treble damages and attorney’s fees in the patent infringement lawsuit.

Source(s): “Modavox filed patent infringement lawsuit against Yahoo!, Inc.,” CNNMoney.com, November 17, 2009 (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/globenewswire/178601.htm).

On November 16, 2009, FuzzySharp Technologies Incorporated filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States District Court, District of Delaware against Nvidia, Dell, Sony and Matrox Graphics, claiming the companies’ graphic processing units (GPUs) infringe two patents. The patents-at-issue, USP No. 6,172,679 and USP No. 6,618,047, related to visibility calculations for 3D computer graphics.
FuzzySharp Technologies seeks compensatory damages and a permanent injunction.

Source(s):  “Tech Patents,” Courthouse News Service, November 18, 2009 (http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/11/18/Tech_Patents_.htm).

On November 13, 2009, Cooper Notification, Inc. filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Twitter, Inc.; Everbridge, Inc; and Rave Wireless, Inc. Cooper Notification claims the companies infringe US Patent No. 7,409,428, “Systems and methods for messaging to multiple gateways.”

Cooper Notification claims Twitter Inc.’s Twitter service, Everbridge’s Everbridge Aware Emergency Notification Software, and Rave Wireless’ Rave Alert mobile emergency notification tool infringe the patent-at-issue.

Cooper Notification asks for an injunction and compensatory damages.

SOURCE(S):  “Cooper Notification, Inc. v. Twitter, Inc. et al.,” United States District Court for the District Court of Delaware, November 13, 2009 (http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/11/16/Twitter.pdf).