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Inventor wins $6.25 M in lawsuit against HP
A jury in San Jose has awarded a Berkeley inventor $6.25 million after finding that Hewlett-Packard (HP) breached a royalty agreement.Richard
Ross, an inventor of FreezeDry technology, had agreed in 1999 to sell
his company, Telemedia, to HP for an initial purchase price of $5
million. Ross was to receive an additional $4.75 million in royalties
based, in part, on the sales of HP products that used the FreezeDry
technology.The FreezeDry technology allows printers, personal
digital assistants and digital senders to operate faster and use less
memory. It was used by HP in more than 10 million printers, personal
digital assistants and digital senders during the royalty period.The
dispute rose when it came time to calculate royalties. HP claimed that
royalties should be computed based on the internal sales between HP’s
internal divisions, while Ross claimed that royalties should be based
on sales from HP to external customers.Ross filed suit in March 2004 in
Santa Clara County Superior Court, alleging breach of contract. HP
counterclaimed, saying Ross had breached the audit provision of the
contract, Bizjournals writes.In March, a jury in Santa Clara County
deadlocked 8-4 in Ross’s favor on the royalties claimed. However, in
the recent second trial, a jury in San Jose awarded Ross the maximum
$4.75 million in royalties and about $1.5 million in pre-judgment
interest.
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