Amazon hit with $30.5 mln US patent verdict over networking technology

Sept 27 (Reuters) - Amazon Web Services (AMZN.O) owes a patent owner $30.5 million in damages for violating its rights in computer networking and broadcasting technology, a jury in Delaware federal court said on Friday.

The jury found that Amazon's CloudFront content-delivery system and Virtual Private Cloud virtual network infringe two patents owned by Acceleration Bay LLC.

The jury also said that Amazon infringed the patents willfully, which could lead U.S. District Judge Richard Andrews to multiply the award by up to three times.

Attorneys and spokespeople for Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the verdict. Acceleration Bay president Joe Ward said the company was "very excited" about the verdict.

Acceleration Bay sued Amazon in 2022 over the network-communications patents, which were originally obtained by Boeing (BA.N). Amazon argued that its technology worked differently from Acceleration Bay's and that it had a license to the patents from the aerospace giant.

Acceleration Bay won $23.4 million in a separate patent trial in May after a jury found that multiplayer features of Activision Blizzard's (ATVI.MX) hit games "World of Warcraft," "Call of Duty: Black Ops III" and "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" violated its rights in two patents.

Activision and Amazon were both found to have infringed one of the same Acceleration Bay patents.

The case is Acceleration Bay LLC v. Amazon Web Services Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:22-cv-00904.