XPRT Venures LLC of Greenwich, Conn. has filed suit for $3.8 billion against eBay for allegedly copying six of its patents related to the online payment process, Pay Pal. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court, District of Delaware on July 13, 2010. 

FLSmidth-Excel LLC and Excel Foundry & Machine, Inc., has recently settled an intellectual property dispute with Metso Minerals Industries, Inc. for approximately $25 million. The dispute centered on a trade secret used to create high-performance conical rock crushers used by the mining industry. 

New technologies open the door to new patent infringement issues, and e-book readers are no exception. 

Axcess International, Inc. has filed suit against the international law firm Baker Botts for conflict of interest in intellectual property matters. If successful, the suit could cost Baker Botts millions of dollars. 

‘Wilfulness’ verdict by jury opens case up to treble damages

In another case for a small inventor over a giant conglomerate, K-TEC Inc., of Orem, Utah won an $11 million settlement over blending industry giant Vita-Mix Corp. over its patented Blendtec blender technology.

The case was heard in the U.S. District Court, District of Utah.

The case alleged that Vita-Mix Corp. of Cleveland, Ohio infringed on a variety of K-TEC patents, including its five-sided blending jar. A jury found that Vita-Mix was not only guilty of infringement, but that the infringement was “willful.”  By law, if infringement is willful, plaintiffs can request punitive damages of up to triple the amount of the jury award.  K-TEC and its lawyer have already stated that they intend to pursue such damages.