Garmin finds victory in GPS patent dispute

A US court has invalidated four patents that were asserted against technology company Garmin International in a $30 million lawsuit.

In a ruling handed down on Friday (May 29), the US District Court for the District of Nevada said the patents, owned by licensing company Silver State Intellectual Technologies, were obvious.

The four patents, US numbers 7,552,992; 7,593,812; 7,702,455 and 7,739,039, all covered GPS technology, used for a satellite navigation.

Silver State sued Garmin in September 2011, reportedly requesting $30 million in damages.

At the centre of dispute were Garmin’s satellite navigation systems Nuvi 3700, Montana 650t, and the NuLink 1695.

Andrew Etkind, vice president of Garmin, said: “Garmin and others pioneered the GPS navigation industry years before Silver State filed its patents.

“We’re pleased that the jury rejected Silver State’s insidious attempts to take credit for the hard work and innovative products of real companies.

“It remains an unfortunate and serious problem that operating companies like Garmin are so often subject to mertiless patent suits based on bogus patents owned by non-operating companies,” he added.

Silver State had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.