Judge Orders Google to Pay $85 Million

MARSHALL, Texas (CN) - Google will have to pay SimpleAir an $85 million judgment for patent infringement on a cloud messaging service, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap denied Google's renewed motion for judgment, and ordered Google to pay the jury's judgment.

SimpleAir claimed in the underlying case that Google's Cloud Messenger and Cloud to Device Messenger service violated patent.

A federal jury ruled for SimpleAir in January, but could not reach a unanimous verdict on damages. A new jury was seated on March 17, for damages only, and on March 19 returned a unanimous verdict awarding $85 million to SimpleAir, Judge Gilstrap wrote.

Google sued to overturn the damages verdict, "arguing that SimpleAir failed to offer sufficient evidence to support the jury's award of $85 million, and more specifically, that SimpleAir's expert witnesses provided unreliable testimony, which should have been excluded or stricken under Federal Rule of Evidence 702," Gilstrap wrote in his opinion and order.

Gilstrap denied Google's motion "in its entirety" and told Google to pay up.

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