Google is expected to face a federal jury in Boston on Tuesday in a trial over allegations that the processors used to power artificial intelligence technology in key products infringe on the patents of a computer scientist.
Singular Computing, founded by Massachusetts-based Joseph Bates, alleged that Google copied his technology and used it to support the company’s AI features in Google Search, Gmail, Google Translate, and other Google services, the report added.
A Google court filing noted that Singular has requested up to $7 billion in monetary damages, which would be more than double the largest-ever patent infringement award in U.S. history, according to the report.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda called Singular’s patents “dubious” and added that the company developed its processors “independently over many years,” the report noted.
Singular’s 2019 complaint noted that Bates shared his computer-processing innovations with the tech giant between 2010 and 2014. Singular added that Google’s Tensor Processing Units, which boost Google’s AI capabilities, copy Bates’ technology and infringe on two patents.
The lawsuit alleges that Google’s circuits use an improved architecture that Bates discovered that allows for greater processing power, as per the report.
Google unveiled its processing units in 2016 to power AI used for speech recognition, content generation, and ad recommendation, among other functions. Singular noted that versions 2 and 3 of the units, introduced in 2017 and 2018, violate its patent rights.
In December 2023, Google told the court that its processors work in different ways than Singular’s patented technology and that the patents were invalid.
“Google engineers had mixed feelings about the technology, and the company ultimately rejected it, explicitly telling Dr. Bates that his idea was not right for the type of applications Google was developing,” Google noted in a court filing, as per the report.
Meanwhile, a U.S. appeals court in Washington will also hear arguments on Tuesday on whether to invalidate Singular’s patents in a separate case which Google appealed from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the report added.