Alphabet’s Google is bracing for a legal showdown as it heads to a federal jury trial in Boston on Tuesday, entangled in a contentious case alleging patent infringement related to the processors powering its key artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, Reuters news report.
Singular Computing, led by Massachusetts-based computer scientist Joseph Bates, said that Google replicated his technology, deploying it within AI functionalities across various core Google services, including Google Search, Gmail, and Google Translate.
The lawsuit asserts that Singular’s technology was illicitly used by Google, prompting a demand for up to $7 billion in monetary damages, a figure that surpasses the largest-ever patent infringement award recorded in U.S. legal history.
Google’s spokesperson, Jose Castaneda, rebutted Singular’s claims, denouncing their patents as “dubious.” Jose Castaneda affirmed that Google independently developed its AI processors over an extensive period, distancing the company from allegations of infringement.
“We look forward to setting the record straight in court,” stated Jose Castaneda, reinforcing Google’s stance on the impending trial.
Conversely, an attorney representing Singular declined to provide any comments on the ongoing litigation.
The trial, anticipated to happen between two to three weeks, seeks resolution for Singular’s 2019 complaint, alleging that Joseph Bates shared his pioneering computer-processing innovations with Google between 2010 and 2014.
The crux of the argument hinges on Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), integral in augmenting the tech giant’s AI capabilities, which Singular claims are replicas of Joseph Bates’ technology, encroaching upon two patents.
Singular contends that Bates’ architectural advancements paved the way for heightened processing prowess, revolutionizing AI training and inference methods — an assertion central to the lawsuit.
Google’s deployment of these processing units from 2016 onwards, powering AI functionalities such as speech recognition and content generation, stands at the core of the dispute. Singular contends that subsequent versions (2 and 3) introduced in 2017 and 2018 violate its patent rights.
In a counterargument presented to the court in December, Google delineated differences between its processors and Singular’s patented technology. The tech behemoth asserted that it had rejected Bates’ proposal, citing incompatibility with the applications Google was developing.
Simultaneously, a U.S. appeals court in Washington is scheduled to review arguments on the potential invalidation of Singular’s patents — a separate case stemming from Google’s appeal against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
