Intellectual Property Verdicts Exceed $1.3 Billion in 2006

Finisar Corp. employs dozens of Ph.D.-level scientists to create technology for its high-speed data communication components and testing business, but one of the company's most lucrative inventions may be a patent outside of its core business that generated a court victory worth $117.3 million last year.

In June 2006, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Finisar won a $78.9 million jury verdict in a patent infringement case against broadcast satellite company The DirecTV Group Inc. of El Segundo, Calif. Although appeals are in the works, fines are racking up, including a judge's $25 million enhancement for willful infringement and $13.4 million for prejudgment interest, post-judgment interest and a compulsory license. Finisar Corp. v. DirecTV Group Inc., No. 05-00264 (E.D. Texas).

Amid a worldwide market expansion for technology products, the Finisar case is one of a burgeoning number of blockbuster verdicts in intellectual property cases.

Survey: Insiders the biggest threat to intellectual property

A new survey released today found that more than half of enterprises believe that the biggest threat to their sensitive information is through the action of malicious or negligent insiders—be they employees, outsourced workers or others working with trusted partners.

The results of the survey were published in an Enterprise Strategy Group brief titled "Intellectual Property Rules" as part of research conducted on behalf of Reconnex. In the report, analyst Eric Ogren noted that the insider threat is a risk not just to personally identifiable information, but also to the myriad of other types of intellectual property (IP) that businesses must protect daily.

"One of the surprises (we found) is how many different forms of IP of there are out there that companies are worried about protecting," Ogren told SCMagazine.com.