Inventor gets $6.25 M in lawsuit against HP
By Ruben Francia
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 arose when it came time to calculate royalties. HP claimed that royalties should be calculated 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 a 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. And 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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