Dive Brief:
- Carnegie Mellon won a $750 million settlement deal against the Marvell Technology Group and Marvell Semiconductor Inc., which the university had accused of infringing on two patents.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports Carnegie Mellon sued in 2009 and a jury awarded $1 billion in damages in 2012, but the case has dragged on in appeals.
- The patents were based on work by a Carnegie Mellon professor and former student, who will get a cut of the settlement, and after legal fees are covered, the university expects to have $250 million it can use toward financial aid and student success initiatives.
Dive Insight:
Ars Technica reports the Marvell payout is the largest ever for a patent case involving a computer science invention. In 1999, the University of Minnesota won the largest settlement of any university in a patent infringement case, earning royalties from an AIDS drug by Glaxo Wellcome that were expected to reach $450 million over the life of the patents. Boston University filed lawsuits against Apple, Amazon, Samsung, and a number of smaller electronics companies in 2013 over semiconductor technology they had patented.
Universities are a hotbed of invention that has the opportunity to bring major returns, justifying the expense of long-gestating research projects — but only if institutions protect their work. In Carnegie-Mellon’s case, the years-long investment in time and legal fees proved worth the effort.