Waterloo, Ont.-based Open Text is reporting that it has won a judgment against high profile cloud services provider Box Inc. for patent infringement.
The Federal Court of San Francisco found that Box of Los Altos, Calif., and solution provider Carahsoft Technology Corp. infringed on three Open Text patents through the sale of Box’s editing product known as Box Edit.
The court awarded nearly $5 million in damages, which was a lot less than what Open Text originally asked for. Open Text is one of the largest independent software vendors of enterprise information management and had initially put forth a lawsuit that covered 12 patents and just under $270 million in potential damages in 2013.
The Federal Court jury found that both Box and Carahsoft directly and contributorily infringed, as well as induced others to infringe claims of all three patents. In so doing, the jury determined that Box Edit for Mac, Box Edit for Windows, and the Box Android application all infringed. The jury further rejected anticipation and obviousness defenses for the asserted claims and found that the patents were valid, according to Open Text.
Carahsoft is a solution provider mainly for the U.S. federal government based in Reston, Va.
Gordon A. Davies, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary for Open Text, said the company is pleased with the jury’s decision and believes its position has been vindicated. “The assertion of these patents is tangible proof of our ongoing efforts to vigorously protect our intellectual property rights and business interests,” Davies said in a prepared statement.
The court decision did not dissuade Box from announcing two new integrations with Microsoft Office that for accessing content from any device or platform. Box joined Citrix and Salesforce.com as inaugural members in Microsoft’s new Cloud Storage Partner Program, and Box will support native integrations for both Office for iPad and iPhone as well as for Office Online.