JVL found guilty of infringing patents

This article comes from Highwaygames.com

JVL has been found guilty of willingly infringing multiple patented inventions by Merit Industries. A federal jury sitting in Philadelphia found that past products by JVL had infringed upon Merit patents. All of the products in question had been discontinued by 2006, with the jury finding that none of JVL's current line of countertop video game machines infringes any patent held by Merit Entertainment.

Merit Entertainment brought forth litigation against JVL, claiming that JVL's line of countertop video game machines infringed three patents owned by Merit. Merit had sought a permanent injunction to prevent JVL from marketing its products, and demanded $24 million in lost-profit damages. The jury denied Merit's demand for nearly $24 million in lost profits, awarding instead approximately $1.6 million in reasonable royalties for infringement by JVL past products.

"We are gratified by the jury's verdict", said Peter Guterres, Chief Executive Officer of JVL. "It demonstrates that the product redesign we undertook when we learned in 2003 of Merit's infringement claims was completely successful. We appreciate that Merit is not entitled to injunctive relief and that the jury rejected Merit's exorbitant lost profits demand."

"While we now think the case should be settled by the companies, we are prepared to address the jury's royalty and willfulness findings, if that becomes necessary, in post-trial proceedings," added Guterres." Meanwhile, we look forward to continuing to provide JVL's highly successful line of products, which have met with great acceptance by operators and players over the last several years, and to offer exciting new products."