Carnegie Mellon University welcomes jury verdict in patent infringement case

USA: The following is a statement from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh regarding today's jury verdict of $1.169 billion in Carnegie Mellon's patent infringement case against Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and Marvell Semiconductor Inc.

"We are gratified by the jury's unanimous verdict in favor of Carnegie Mellon in our patent infringement case against Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and Marvell Semiconductor Inc. We felt the evidence we submitted was compelling, and the jury agreed. Protection of the discoveries of our faculty and students is very important to us. We appreciate the willingness of the jurors to give us their time and attention during this holiday season to hear our case.

This case deals with fundamental technology for increasing the accuracy with which hard disk drive circuits read data from high speed magnetic disks. The systems and methods were developed and patented by Jose Moura, a professor in the University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Aleksandar Kavcic, a former Ph.D. student of Moura who is now a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Hawaii.

The work that led to the invention by Moura and Kavcic was supported by the university's Data Storage Systems Center (DSSC), an interdisciplinary research and educational center whose mission is to advance information storage technologies.

The DSSC brings the best and brightest faculty members and students from a wide range of disciplines together with industry partners to tackle real world problems in the data storage industry. The university's singular success, particularly over the past 40 years, has been achieved in large measure through collaboration with industry. We value those relationships greatly.

We did not undertake this suit lightly and once we undertook it we did not pursue it lightly. It was a hard-fought battle every step of the way as we insisted that the rights of our inventors and our industrial partners in the DSSC be fully protected. We are thankful for the great work that our team, both at Carnegie Mellon and at K&L Gates, did to achieve this victory."