--Vringo to gain royalties until patents expire in 2016

--Past damages worth $30 million, well below what Vringo initially sought

--Vringo stock halted on verdict

(Adds more comments, details and background, starting in the second paragraph.)

 
   By Ben Fox Rubin 
 

Small technology company Vringo Inc. (VRNG) was awarded about $30 million in damages and granted future royalties by a federal jury in its patent suit against a handful of technology giants, including Google Inc. (GOOG) and AOL Inc. (AOL), according to a person familiar with the case.

Vringo was awarded a 3.5% running royalty rate off a portion of the defendants' search-advertising revenue until the patents expire in 2016. The person close to the case said the royalties should be far more significant than the past damages and could be worth several million dollars a year.

Additionally, the Virginia district court jury found that Vringo's patents were valid, opening up the possibility of future lawsuits.

Vringo, a mobile-technology and intellectual-property company, sued Google, AOL, IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI) and others, alleging infringement of two of its patents used to select and position advertising on Internet-search results. AOL earlier settled a portion of the suit for $100,000.

Vringo's shares were halted for the news at $4.25, up 7.6%.

The stock has moved wildly since the patent trial began last month, sinking 36% last Wednesday, after the judge in the case ruled that Vringo couldn't be awarded a large chunk of the past damages it sought, citing a long delay in filing its patent claim. The company had sought $696 million in past damages, but that amount was later trimmed to $493 million. The stock reversed its huge loss Monday, after a jury question on damages fed speculation of a Vringo win.

Vringo was founded in 2006 with a focus on mobile technology, but in March it agreed to merge with privately held Innovate/Protect, which now controls most of the company and brought it into the intellectual property industry. Innovate/Protect, which bought the two contested patents from Lycos along with six others for $3.2 million, has alleged that the technology it owns is widely used in the search industry.

Investor enthusiasm for the merged company came quickly and included a major investment from billionaire Mark Cuban. Bolstering its intellectual property business, Vringo in August bought several hundred patents and patent applications from struggling cellphone company Nokia Corp. (NOK, NOK1V.HE) for $22 million, then last month sued Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corp.'s(ZTCOY, 0763.HK, 000063.SZ) U.K. unit, alleging patent infringement of some of those newly acquired patents.

Vringo had been able to use its higher profile from the merger and Google suit to raise tens of the millions of dollars in recent stock offerings, allowing it to strengthen its financial position. The company, which has a market value of about $299 million, currently has about 27 employees in New York and Israel.

Write to Ben Fox Rubin at ben.rubin@dowjones.com.

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