Google, YouTube slapped with $26 million verdict in video-sharing patent fight
Print/Download- YouTube found to infringe video-streaming optimization patent
- VideoShare case against Facebook still pending
(Reuters) – Google and its video platform YouTube owe nearly $26 million for infringing a streaming-video patent owned by VideoShare LLC, a Texas federal jury said.
The Waco, Texas jury found Tuesday that YouTube’s streaming technology works in the same way as VideoShare’s patented technology for converting a video to multiple formats and transmitting it in the best format for a user’s device.
The jury also rejected Google and YouTube’s claims that the patent was invalid for containing “well-understood, routine, and conventional” elements.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in an email Wednesday the company is still confident the patent is invalid and that it didn’t infringe, and is evaluating its options.
VideoShare attorney Michael Shore of Shore Chan said in a statement on Wednesday that the company “had the facts and the law on its side.”
VideoShare, which was created in 1998 by three inventors who developed early streaming-video technology, sued Google and YouTube in 2019, alleging YouTube technology for transmitting a video file to a user based on its compatibility with the user’s device infringed the patent.
Google argued among other things that the patent was invalid because it covered an abstract idea and had been disclosed in prior art, and that VideoShare had received the patent by withholding material information from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
David Almeling of O’Melveny & Myers and Mark Mann of Mann Tindel Thompson represented Google.
VideoShare sued Facebook in the same court in March for infringing the same patent, in a case that is still ongoing.
The case is VideoShare LLC v. Google LLC, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 6:19-cv-00663.
For VideoShare: Michael Shore and William Ellerman of Shore Chan, Charles Ainsworth of Parker Bunt & Ainsworth
For Google: David Almeling of O’Melveny & Myers, Mark Mann of Mann Tindel Thompson
(Note: This story has been updated to correct VideoShare’s attorney information.)
