U.S. top court rejects I/P Engine's bid to restore $30 million patent verdict

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by Vringo Inc subsidiary I/P Engine, which was seeking to restore a $30 million patent infringement verdict it won against several companies including Google Inc. The high court rejected I/P Engine's appeal, meaning a August 2014 ruling against the company by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was left intact. A jury in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia had found that Google's AdWords and AdSense for Search products infringed upon two patents on filtering Internet search results. Verizon Communications subsidiary AOL Inc, IAC/InterActiveCorp subsidiary IAC Search & Media Inc, Gannett Company Inc and Target Corp were also named as defendants for allegedly infringing on the patent by using AdSense for Search. The appeals court said both patents were invalid. The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that the invention was obvious to anyone skilled in the field. The commercial success of Google's Adwords platform is not evidence to the contrary, the court ruled. The case is I/P Engine Inc. v. AOL Inc, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 14-1358. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)