Nortel loses $28M patent judgment

MARSHALL, Texas, April 20 (UPI) -- A U.S. district court jury ordered Nortel Networks Corp. to pay $28 million to an Australian company for illegally using its computer networking technology.

The Marshall, Texas, jury said the Toronto multinational telecommunications-equipment manufacturer infringed a patent held by Ipernica Ltd. of Perth, Australia.

The 2-year-old case entangle most major North American computer networking companies, including Cisco Systems Inc., Alcatel-Lucent and Juniper Networks Inc. But all the other companies settled with Ipernica, formerly known as QPSX Ltd., The Globe and Mail reported.

Ipernica argued Nortel violated its U.S. patent for a statistical multiplexing system in several Nortel switching products. The disputed patent, filed in the early 1990s, covers a method of ensuring telecommunications switches and routers operate efficiently, the newspaper said.

Ipernica estimated the technology is used in $2 billion worth of networking products by several manufacturers a year. It has sought royalties of up to 7 percent.

Nortel had no immediate comment on the jury verdict.