August 3, 2011

A federal jury in Norfolk has ordered Verizon Communications Inc. to pay $115 million to a company for patent infringement.

The U.S. District Court jury on Tuesday found that Verizon infringed on ActiveVideo's patents when it developed its own video-on-demand cable services.

Virginia Beach resident Leo Hoarty started the company under a different name in the early 1990s. He obtained patents for video-on-demand and other interactive services.

The Virginian-Pilot reports Verizon approached ActiveVideo for assistance about six years ago. Verizon engineers were provided with the technology in the hopes that Verizon would invest in it.

Instead, Verizon went with different companies who were developing similar services.