THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 13, 1995 TAG: 9504130416
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HIGH POINT LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
A Virginia jury has recommended MAC Panel Co. of High Point pay a Virginia company $1.2 million in damages resulting from a patent infringement.
After a three-week trial that ended early last month, a Virginia jury unanimously decided MAC Panel willfully infringed on two separate patents owned by Virginia Panel Corp. of Waynesboro, Va.
The decision ends a costly legal battle the two companies have fought for the past two years.
But for MAC Panel, which recently laid off 18 of its 70 workers partly in response to the lawsuit, things could get even more costly. Virginia Panel recently filed a motion to claim an additional $3.6 million in damages and an estimated $1.4 million in attorney fees and costs.
``Any good business owner is going to get what he can get,'' Virginia Panel Corp. Vice President Sandra Stowers said. ``We spent all this money and haven't even recovered our attorney fees. We are going to go for the maximum amount. It's our right.''
A judge will decide in May whether to award any portion of those damages, according to officials with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. The judge also will decide whether to award the $1.2 million the jury recommended last month.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT JURY PATENT INFRINGEMENT by CNB