Facebook will pay $10.5 million in damages, including $50 million in punitive damages, to patent owners over their claims that the company didn’t infringe their patents, the company said Thursday.
The agreement, which was first reported by Reuters, is aimed at settling a class-action lawsuit brought by two inventors who had sued Facebook last year.
It also addresses a lawsuit by three former employees who had filed a lawsuit against the company in 2015.
The settlement will include $2.5 billion in cash, plus $250 million in additional payments to existing patent holders, said Facebook chief legal officer Adam Mosseri in a statement.
It’s part of a $4.7 billion settlement reached last year to resolve lawsuits brought by Google and Apple over Android software.
In the first phase of the settlement, Facebook will provide $2 billion in grants to inventors to fund projects, and it will pay patent holders an average of $1,500 per patent for each patent they win.
The company will also pay $1.1 billion to former employees of its Silicon Valley headquarters, as well as to a group of investors who sued Facebook for breach of contract.
Facebook is expected to provide an estimated $1 billion in non-monetary relief, including interest and attorneys fees, to inventor plaintiffs.
It is also expected to pay additional non-economic damages.
“Our commitment to patent law is unwavering and is consistent with our long-standing position that the best and most effective way to ensure innovation is to ensure that we are not infringing patents,” Mosseri said in a news release.
“This settlement will help to ensure Facebook can continue to do that.”
The terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.
