Meta says it will challenge $175 million video tech patent ruling

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  • Walkie-talkie app maker says Meta copied Facebook Live’s tech
  • Jury finds Meta infringes video streaming, messaging patents

(Reuters) – Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms Inc said it will appeal the nearly $175 million verdict handed down on Wednesday by jurors in Austin, Texas, who found it infringed on properties belonging to the maker of the walkie-talkie app Two Voxer Inc patents related to video streaming and messaging.

Voxer was awarded $174.5 million in royalties, a jury said after a seven-day trial for Meta’s Facebook Live and Instagram Live livestreaming features, which used Voxer’s patented technology.

A Meta spokesman said Thursday that the company believes the evidence shows it did not infringe. Meta intends to challenge the verdict in the trial court and through appeal, the spokesman said.

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Voxer and its lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

San Francisco-based Voxer launched its app in 2011. It said it disclosed its patented technology to the tech giant in a series of meetings with Facebook in 2012 about a potential partnership.

The meetings did not reach an agreement, according to Voxer’s 2020 lawsuit, which Facebook isolated in 2013 from key features of its platform. Voxer said the company, now known as Meta, launched Facebook Live in 2015 and Instagram Live the following year, purportedly integrating the streaming technology it pioneered.

One Voxer patent covers a method for streaming video, and another covers the infrastructure for a video messaging service. A jury on Wednesday rejected Meta’s argument that the video messaging patent was invalid.

Meta told the court in a filing Tuesday that no reasonable jury would find its service worked the same way as Voxer’s patented technology, and that the app maker was not entitled to any damages.

The case is Voxer Inc v. Meta Platforms Inc, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 1:20-cv-00655.

Meta: Robert Van Nest, Christa Anderson, David Silbert, Eugene Paige, Matthew Werdegar and Paven Malhotra of Keker Van Nest & Peters

For Voxer: Kevin Johnson, Robert Stone, Sam Stake, Kate Shih and Michael Powell of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

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Blake Britton

Thomson Reuters

Blake Brittain reports on intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets.Contact him at blake.brittain@thomsonreuters.com

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