Vringo, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRNG) announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Intent to Issue Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate for U.S. Patent No. 6,314,420 ("the '420 Patent").

On May 24, 2012, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) submitted a request to the USPTO for ex parte reexamination of claims 10, 14, 15, 25, 27 and 28 of the '420 Patent.

Today, the USPTO released a Notice of Intent to Issue Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate stating that it will issue a certificate confirming the validity of all claims in the '420 patent challenged by Google in this reexamination.

Background

On November 6, 2012, a jury in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia ruled in favor of I/P Engine and against defendants AOL, Inc., Google, Inc., IAC Search & Media, Inc., Gannett Company, Inc., and Target Corporation (collectively, "Defendants") with respect to Defendants' infringement of the asserted claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,314,420 and 6,775,664.

After upholding the validity of the patents-in-suit, and determining that the asserted claims of the patents were infringed by Defendants, the jury found that reasonable royalty damages should be based on a "running royalty," and that the running royalty rate should be 3.5%. The jury also awarded I/P Engine a total of approximately $30.5 million. On November 20, 2012, the clerk entered the District Court's final judgment.

The U.S. District Court proceedings are pending in the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division. The case number is 2:11cv512RAJ. Appellate proceedings are pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The docket numbers are 13-1307 and 13-1313. The court dockets for the foregoing cases are publicly available on the Public Access to Court Electronic Records website, www.pacer.gov, which is operated by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Documents regarding USPTO proceedings are publicly available on the Patent Application Information Retrieval website, http://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair, which is operated by the USPTO. The control number for the reexamination that is the subject of this press release is 90/009,991.