A federal judge in Austin, Texas on Tuesday rejected a request by Meta Platforms Inc's to throw out a $175 million jury patent verdict for walkie-talkie app maker Voxer Inc, Trend reports citing Reuters.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel's decision leaves intact the jury's finding that Meta's Facebook Live and Instagram Live live-streaming technology infringed two Voxer patents related to video streaming and messaging. Meta can still appeal the verdict to a higher court.
San Francisco-based Voxer's 2020 lawsuit said its representatives disclosed its patented technology to Meta, which was then Facebook, when the companies met in 2012 about a potential collaboration.
Voxer said Facebook cut it off from key features of the social media platform in 2013 and misused its technology in Facebook Live and Instagram Live, which launched in 2015 and 2016.
A jury found last September that Meta infringed the two patents, which relate to a method for streaming video and infrastructure for a video-messaging service, and awarded Voxer $174.5 million in royalty damages.