Google is set to appear before a federal jury in Boston on Tuesday for a trial responding to allegations that the processors used in its key products for powering artificial intelligence (AI) technology infringe upon patents held by a computer scientist, a company spokesperson said.
The plaintiff in this case is Singular Computing, founded by Joseph Bates, a scientist based in Massachusetts and a former MIT professor.
Singular Computing claims that Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, unlawfully copied Bates' proprietary technology, which played a crucial role in supporting artificial intelligence features across various Google services, including Google Search, Gmail, and Google Translate.
The firm alleged that Google infringed on its patented architectures, which were designed to enhance the efficiency of a computer's transistors.
According to Singular Computing, these patented innovations revolutionised the way AI training and inference processes are accomplished. The plaintiff contends that Google was made aware of these patented technologies when Bates shared his computer-processing innovations with the company between 2010 and 2014.
According to court documents from Google, Singular has requested up to $7 billion in damages -- the largest-ever patent infringement award in the history of the United States, if it comes to pass. Singular's key damages expert, Philip Green, claimed in a December motion that a license to the patents-in-suit would have resulted in a royalty payment of "up to $6.6 billion."
Google, in response to the allegations, expressed scepticism about Singular's patents, with spokesperson Jose Castaneda deeming them "dubious."
Castaneda, according to Reuters, stressed that Google had independently developed its processors over many years and considered Singular's claims baseless. The tech giant looks forward to "setting the record straight in court," he said.
The legal battle is not the first time Google has found itself entangled in patent disputes. Over the years, the company has faced various patent-related lawsuits.
In 2011, Google lost the first round of a case against Wireless Ink Corp. Both Facebook and Google were unsuccessful in their attempts to have Wireless Ink's infringement claim dismissed. Consequently, Wireless Ink was permitted to pursue charges related to user participation in social networks on mobile devices against both tech companies.
The current lawsuit against G