A federal jury ordered Hewlett-Packard Co. to pay Cornell University $184 million for patent infringement on Friday. Cornell had initiated the lawsuit in 2002, accusing HP of stealing a professor’s invention that increased computer processing speed, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard.
HP representatives say the company will appeal.
The University’s five Los Angeles lawyers came to the Syracuse courtroom armed with sixty-one binders of accusations, seeking $900 million in damages. The 1989 patent by Hwa Torng, PhD ’58 (left), a professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering, was for a device that enabled computers to multitask. Should HP lose it’s appeal, Torng will win 25 percent of the $184 million–most of which he says he’ll donate to Ithaca charities, according to the Ithaca Journal.
Click here to read more about the verdict, HP’s appeal, and the lawsuit’s background.