The Google logo is pictured at the entrance to the Google offices in London, Britain January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

(Reuters) - Purdue University's Purdue Research Foundation has sued Google LLC in Texas federal court, alleging that Android software for eliminating programming errors in smartphones copies parts of its professors' invention.

The foundation asked the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas for royalties and an undisclosed amount of money damages on Tuesday based on Google's alleged willful patent infringement.

The complaint said two professors and two students at the West Lafayette, Indiana university invented the patented technology, which detects software programming errors that could affect a mobile device's power management.

Purdue said that after a Google engineer posted an article about one of the professors in an Android forum in 2012, another Google engineer found and incorporated code disclosed by the inventors into Android software.

Purdue received the patent in 2019. The university said it sent Google a notice of infringement last August, but the company continues to use the patented code.

A Purdue spokesperson said in a Wednesday statement that the research foundation tried to meet with Google for weeks, but the company refused "reasonable conditions" for a meeting.

The spokesperson said Google infringes multiple additional Purdue patents, and the school will amend its complaint to add them if Google "continues to refuse to negotiate a license."

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said Wednesday that the company develops its products independently, and that it was reviewing the complaint and would "vigorously" defend itself.

The case is Purdue Research Foundation v. Google LLC, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 6:22-cv-00119.

For Purdue: Michael Shore and Alfonso Chan of Shore Chan, Mark Siegmund of Steckler Wayne Cochran Cherry

Source: Reuters

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