Chrome’s Anti-Malware Technology: Google Wins Appeal in $20 Million Patent Lawsuit

Alphabet’s Google LLC recently convinced a U.S. Appellate court to cancel 3 anti-malware patents at the heart of a Texas jury’s $20 million infringement verdict against the company.

The U.S. Appellate Court for the Federal Circuit stated that Alfonso Cioffi and Allen Rozman’s patents were invalid because they contained inventions that weren’t included in the patent’s earlier version.

Therefore, Google spokesperson José Castañeda stated that the company appreciated the decision. Representatives for the inventors didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alfonso Cioffi and the late Rozman’s daughters sued Google in East Texas federal court in 2013, alleging anti-malware functions in Google’s Chrome web browser infringed their patents for technology that prevents malware from accessing critical files on a computer.

Further, the jury decided in 2017 that Google infringed the patents and awarded the plaintiffs $20 million plus ongoing royalties, which their attorney stated at the time were expected to total about $7 million per year for the next 9 years.

But the Federal Circuit stated that all of the patents were invalid. The three patents were reissued from an earlier anti-malware patent, and federal law required the new patents to cover the same invention as the first, the unanimous 3-judge panel concluded.

Therefore, the appeals court said that the new patents outlined technology specific to web browsers that the first patent didn’t mention.

The case is Cioffi v. Google LLC, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 18-1049.