Amazon Told to Pay $5 Million in Patent Trial Over Echo (1)

Amazon.com infringed a patent owned by closely held Vocalife for a microphone array system, a federal jury in Marshall, Texas, said Thursday.

• The microphone array improves speech recognition, according to Vocalife
• The $5 million would cover royalties for both past and future sales, the jury said
• NOTE: Vocalife had claimed Amazon learned of the technology from a presentation it made to the company, but the jury rejected arguments that infringement of the patent was intentional
• Amazon denied infringing the patent and said it would appeal the verdict
• “We appreciate the jury’s service but disagree with the outcome of this case,” ...