Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Vringo (NASDAQ: VRNG) jumped more than 10% during intraday trading Wednesday after the company announced the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had validated all the claims of its "664 patent," which had been specifically challenged by Google.
So what: Specifically, Vringo states, yesterday the USPTO "mailed a notice that it will issue a certificate confirming that all of the claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,775,664 challenged by Google remain valid and unchanged." For those of you keeping track, this is the second of two patents -- the first of which was validated in a similar decision in July -- which had been the subject of a contentious, long-standing legal battle between Vringo and the likes of AOL, Google, IAC/Interactive, Gannett, and Target. Now that both patents have been validated, it paves the way for Vringo to collect royalties.
Now what: Even so, Google has asserted that, as of May 2013, it implemented a "design around" to its system so that it no longer infringes the patents. For now, the court briefing process is still under way to both resolve the ongoing royalty rate and determine whether Google's new design is sufficient to avoid having to pay future royalties to Vringo.
As it stands, though, there's no disputing today's win is a big one for Vringo investors.
