Meta must pay $175 million for patent-infringing live-streaming tech, judge rules

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After a jury unanimously ruled last September that Meta owed walkie-talkie app maker Voxer $175 million for patent infringement, Meta tried to avoid pay by asking a judge to overturn the jury's verdict or give Meta a new trial. This week, a federal judge denied Meta's claim, making it likely that Meta will have to pay all those ongoing royalties for illegally copying Voxer's technology and using it to launch Facebook Live and Instagram Live.

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Meta had apparently done everything he could to avoid paying millions in damages. He questioned whether the jury's decision was reasonable, saying Voxer's attorney made comments that biased the jury. In Meta's view, no reasonable jury would have found that Meta infringed Voxer's patented video streaming and messaging technologies. Moreover, even though everyone agreed there was infringement, Meta argued that the damages were too extreme and miscalculated by Voxer's expert. Instead of owing current royalties, Meta felt that it should be liable to pay no damages or a lump sum.

In his decision, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel asserted that substantial evidence supported the jury's verdict of patent infringement and sufficient evidence supported the damages the jury awarded to Voxer.

Meta can still appeal, but a Meta spokesperson declined to tell Ars if the company will.

Ars could not immediately contact Voxer for comment, but this week's ruling brings the company closer to the end of a decade-long legal saga that began in 2012 when Voxer met with Facebook to the first time to discuss a potential partnership.

According to Voxer's complaint, Voxer began developing its technology in 2006, hoping to help improve battlefield communications. US Army veteran Tom Katis co-founded the company, wanting to create a live messaging and video streaming app that would help eliminate transmission interruptions that left soldiers vulnerable during sudden ambushes or when medical evacuations were needed. That ambition morphed into the walkie-talkie app Voxer launched in 2011, which was so popular it sparked encounters with Facebook in 2012.

Voxer was probably thrilled to be courted by Facebook, but soon after Voxer shared its patent portfolio and proprietary technology with the social network, the partnership fell apart. When this happened, Facebook revoked Voxer's access to its platform, viewing Voxer as a competitor while making it more difficult for Voxer to be discovered on Facebook. After that, Meta moved forward without Voxer's involvement and launched Facebook Live in 2015 and Instagram Live in 2016.

After the launches, Voxer tried to book another meeting with Facebook, but the social network declined to discuss any alleged patent infringement. When Voxer filed a lawsuit in 2020, the app maker alleged that "both products incorporate Voxer's technologies and infringe its patents".

Meta has maintained for the next three years that there has been no patent infringement, but notably, the company did not immediately repeat its claims to that effect this week.

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Voxer's win this week was due to Katis' foresight in filing patents as he developed a bold new type of technology he had never seen before. When Katis built Voxer, he told a conference in Paris in 2012 that he was surprised at how easily it was possible to patent Voxer's technology, quickly filing more than 75 patents within a year of launch. of the walkie-talkie application. Katis said he was able to patent the technology because "nobody" including Facebook "was crazy enough" to try to develop live-streaming technology like the vision he had for Voxer.