(RTTNews) - Monday, Dovel & Luner LLP announced that a Los Angeles jury has found Sprint Nextel
(S), a provider of a range of wireless and wireline communications services, liable for infringing two patents owned by privately held Enovsys LLC. The jury returned its verdict late Friday, May 16 and awarded Enovsys past damages of $2.78 million.
The patents relate to a privacy system used to protect and manage the disclosure of the precise location of a user's cell phone, for example the phone's GPS position. The California-based intellectual property holding company Enovsys had alleged that the Overland Park, Kansas headquartered Sprint Nextel's wireless networks use the patents in managing location-based services.
Testimony at trial showed that the nation's third largest wireless carrier Sprint Nextel is the market leader in the growing field of location services and saw a 50% increase in related revenues in 2007 over the prior year.
Dovel & Luner said inventors Mundi Fomukong and Denzil Chesney applied for the first of the patents in 1997, several years before location services were first offered for cell phones.
S rose $0.10 or 1.09% and closed Monday's regular trading session at $9.27. After hours, S advanced further $0.04 or 0.43% and traded at $9.31.
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