Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) will face trial in federal court in Boston on Tuesday on allegations that processors used by the company to implement artificial intelligence technology in key products infringe on computer scientists’ patents, Reuters reports.
Singular Computing, a company founded by Massachusetts computer scientist Joseph Bates, claimed that Google replicated his technology and used it to support artificial intelligence features in Google Search, Gmail, Google Translate and other Google services.
Singular has demanded monetary damages of up to $7 billion. However, Google spokesman Jose Castaneda called Singular’s patents “dubious” and stated that Google had developed its processors “independently over many years.”
We look forward to setting the record straight in court.
Singular’s complaint dated 2019 stated that Bates was sharing his computer processing innovations with Google between 2010 and 2014. Singular alleged that Google’s Tensor Processing Units, which enhance artificial intelligence capabilities, copied Bates’ technology and infringed two patents.
However, the lawsuit claims that Google’s circuits use an improved architecture discovered by Bates that provides more processing power and “revolutionised the way AI training and inference are accomplished.”
In 2016, Google introduced its processors to support artificial intelligence used for speech recognition, content generation, advertising recommendations and other functions. Singular argued that versions 2 and 3, introduced in 2017 and 2018, infringe its patent rights.
In December, Google told the court that its processors worked differently from 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.
The US Court of Appeals in Washington will also hear arguments on Tuesday to invalidate Singular’s patents in a separate case that Google has appealed to the US Patent and Trademark Office.
