The parent company of Facebook and Instagram was ordered to pay nearly $175 million for violating patents held by the maker of a push-to-talk app founded by a former Green Beret who had sought to solve battlefield communications problems he encountered in Afghanistan.
A federal jury in Austin, Texas, deliberated for a day before finding that Meta Platforms Inc. infringed two patents held by Voxer Inc., and awarded Voxer $174.5 million in damages, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
Voxer had accused the Menlo Park, California, social media giant of taking its proprietary streaming technologies and incorporating them into Facebook Live and Instagram Live after a potential collaboration fell through.
