What about Marvell? The chip manufacturer giant is losing $1.17b to Carnegie Mellon University as fine for patent infringement. This not only plummeted the Marvell Technologies (MRVL) shares by 10%, but also tumbled it to as low as $7.19.

The worst part is not yet over! In the findings, the jury ruled that Marvell violated the patents intentionally, which means Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) can ask the judge to triple the damages.

But Marvell is strongly of the opinion that the theoretical methods detailed in these patents couldn’t be practical to silicon chips. Even the use of all the modern technology wouldn’t be sufficient to implement the CMU’s patents, leave alone the technology of 10 years back.

The two-CMU asserted patents claim a specific technique related to read channel detector technology. This patented technology is useful in disk drives used in personal computers, server systems and other products. The two CMU patents describe a way of reducing “noise” when reading information off hard disks.

The penalty would wipe out Marvell’s one year of profit. It is claimed that it grossed $900 million in profit in 2011. This would also cause the earlier patent verdict between Samsung & Apple which was $1.05 billion to be wiped out and become the number one standing this year.

The previous history shows that similar fines of $1.17 billion and above were levied by courts, but couldn’t stand the future trials. Alcatel-Lucent was able to nail Microsoft with a $1.5 billion patent verdict over MP3 technology in 2007. But this couldn’t stand out later as the judge turned it down in later 2009 trial. Johnson & Johnson’s Centocor unit successfully sued Abbott Labs for $1.67 billion in patent damages, plus interest, but the patent was knocked out on appeal in 2011.

Marvell is a chip company based in Santa Clara and was founded by Sehat Sutardja who grew up fixing radios in Indonesia. Later he obtained a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley founding Marvell Semiconductor in 1995.

Carnegie-Mellon sued Marvell last March, claiming the patents were infringed on at least nine integrated circuits it shipped that deal with methods in which data are read at high speeds when stored on a disk drive.

The company is of the opinion that it’s a harsh verdict against them, as the technology was already submitted in Seagate’s patent. It will try to appeal against the federal jury in Pittsburgh, according to this press release:

Marvell and MSI believe that the evidence and the law do not support the jury’s findings of infringement, validity and the award of damages. There are strong grounds for appeal and Marvell and MSI will seek to overturn the verdict in post-trial motions before the District Court and, if necessary, to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.

Marvell and MSI intend to vigorously challenge the judgment through all appropriate post trial motions and appeal processes. In addition, the district court in Pittsburgh has yet to rule on certain of Marvell’s defenses and motions, including laches and Marvell’s renewed request for a mistrial.

The inventions were credited to José Moura, a professor at the university, and a graduate student, Alek Kavcic, who is now a professor at the University of Hawaii.

Marvell argued in court that it didn’t infringe the patents. It alleged that the patents at issue were improperly obtained by withholding information about prior inventions from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Tags: Carnegie Mellon University, Marvell, patent infringement, technology