Coalition for Patent Fairness member HP whacked with $184 million infringement verdict

Newsday reports that a jury has found Hewlett-Packard guilty of infringing a patent of Cornell Professor Professor Hwa Torng from the 1980s and awarded $184 million in patent infringement damages. Hewlett-Packard is a member of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, which has lobbied to alter the way patent damages are calculated. When no consensus on that aspect of patent reform could be reached, the Coalition walked away from negotiations on other aspects of reform, and reform died for the year 2008. With the Cornell verdict, one sees the self-interest involved. Infringers trying to get a better deal.

from WCAX (through AP):

Cornell University says a jury has awarded $184 million in its patent infringement lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard Co. after a two-week trial. Cornell spokesman Tom Bruce tells the Syracuse Post-Standard the verdict was returned Friday [May 30] evening, finding Hewlett-Packard infringed on Cornell's intellectual property, specifically a patented invention in the 1980s that increased the speed of computers.