A US jury on Wednesday ordered Meta to pay $174.5 million for infringing patents related to a streaming service developed by a US Army veteran seeking to fix deficiencies in battlefield communications, AFP reported.
Legal documents showed that a case filed in a federal court in Texas ended with a jury ruling that the "live" features on Facebook and Instagram use technology patented by Voxer. Co-founded by Tom Katies.
"We believe that the evidence at trial showed that Meta did not infringe Foxxer's patents," a spokesperson for the giant network said in response to a question by Agence France-Presse.
"We intend to take additional steps, including appealing the ruling," he added.
Court filings stated that Katis, who had re-enlisted into the Army after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and served as a Special Forces communications sergeant in Afghanistan, had his combat unit ambushed, and Katis felt that the systems for coordinating reinforcements, medical evacuations, etc. "were inappropriate for communications time-sensitive with multiple groups in a highly turbulent environment."
"Catis and his team began developing communications solutions in 2006 to address these shortcomings," his lawyers said, "and new technologies have enabled the transfer of voice and video communications, with the immediacy of direct communication, the reliability and convenience of messaging services, to a new stage."
Facebook contacted San Francisco-based Foxr about potential cooperation after it launched the Walkie Talkie app in 2011, but no agreement was reached, according to legal documents.
Instead, Facebook went ahead with its live streaming services, Facebook Live and Instagram Live, incorporating Foxr technology into the features, according to the lawsuit.
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