AT&T (NYSE: T) has been ordered to pay Two-Way Media LLC $27.5 million after a jury in a U.S. District Court in San Diego determined its U-verse service used technology that infringed on two Two-Way Media patents covering online audio and video streaming.
AT&T had sought to have the patents, which cover live streaming technology as well as ways to record usage-based customer data, deemed invalid, according to Bloomberg reporting. The jury in the case--Two-Way Media LLC v. AT&T Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas--disagreed and ordered the carrier to pay up. AT&T, in turn, said it will seek to have the verdict overturned, even though $27.5 million is generally considered pocket change at the giant carrier.
"While the verdict was a small fraction of what the plaintiff sought in this case, we will challenge the amount that was awarded," AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said in a statement.
The court victory marks the third time Two-Way Media has come out on top in patent issues. It previously sued Akamai Technologies and Limelight Networks over the same technology, the Bloomberg story said. Those cases were settled out of court.
"This (suit against AT&T) was a hard-fought case," Parker Folse, an attorney representing Two-Way said in a statement.
For more:
- Bloomberg carried this story
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