Purdue University drops lawsuit against Google over smartphone patent

(Reuters) – The research arm of Purdue University has agreed to dismiss a patent lawsuit over Google LLC’s alleged copying of smartphone battery-saving software technology, according to a filing in San Francisco federal court.

The Purdue Research Foundation told the court Monday that it had decided to disclaim the patent it accused the tech giant of infringing and would dismiss the case with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled.

Purdue’s attorney Michael Shore of the Shore Firm said Wednesday that the school had discovered its library accidentally made public a professor’s article describing the invention more than a year before the patent application was filed, thus invalidating the patent, as patents must describe a previously undisclosed invention.

“As soon as Purdue discovered the library error, it did what any honest, ethical patentee would do and started the process of disclaiming the patent,” Shore said.

Google declined to comment on the case Wednesday.

Purdue sued Google in Waco, Texas in February for allegedly copying technology invented by two of its professors and two of its students. The technology relates to a system for analyzing computer code to detect programming errors that could affect a mobile device’s power management.

The West Lafayette, Indiana university said that a Google engineer found and incorporated the inventors’ code into Android app-development software after a Google engineer posted an article about one of the professors on an internet forum in 2012.

Google denied the allegations in a May court filing and argued the patent was invalid.

The dispute was moved from Waco to San Francisco in June.

The case is Purdue Research Foundation v. Google LLC, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 3:22-cv-03870.

For Purdue: Michael Shore of the Shore Firm; Elizabeth Day, Marc Belloli and David Alberti of Kramer Day Alberti Lim Tonkovich & Belloli

For Google: Matthew Warren and Jennifer Kash of Warren Lex

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