Jury orders Marvell to pay $1.17 bln in patent case

Dec 26 (Reuters) - A federal jury on Wednesday ordered Marvell Technology Group Ltd to pay $1.17 billion in damages in a patent infringement lawsuit brought by Carnegie Mellon University, court records show.

Marvell was accused of infringing patents for technology to increase the accuracy with which hard disk drive circuits read data from high-speed magnetic disks, lawyers for Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon said.

The damages award was detailed in a verdict form made public in U.S. district court in Pittsburgh.

The verdict included a finding that the infringement was willful, which could let the trial judge award triple damages, Carnegie Mellon lawyers said.

Marvell could not immediately be reached for comment. Its shares fell after the verdict was announced, and in afternoon trading were down 60 cents, or 7.3 percent, at $7.65 on the Nasdaq.