As jury awards go, a company probably won’t go broke on it. But ARRIS International Inc. says it will appeal a jury decision on a patent infringement lawsuit that awarded $1.35 million to PPC.
The lawsuit covers “ornamental features of a connector,” specifically its Digicon S6 and S59 series connectors, ARRIS says, adding that it “strongly believes the jury findings are wrong and will seek to overturn this decision through appropriate legal channels.”
In May, John Mezzalingua Associates Inc., which does business as PPC, filed patent infringement lawsuits against three cable-equipment vendors. The maker of connectors, traps, filters and fiber optic products said then that ARRIS (then Antec Corp.), Gilbert Engineering Co. (a Corning Inc. subsidiary), and Thomas & Betts Corp. had each infringed on different designs related to its EX series of universal compression connectors.
An Antec spokesman at the time denied the company had violated any patents and said it would “vigorously defend our rights to do what we’re doing with our technologies.”
ARRIS says it will continue with business as usual.
A PPC spokesman did not return calls by CEDaily‘s deadline.