HP files appeal in patent dispute with Cornell University

On March 30, 2009, the U.S. District Court issued several post-trial decisions reducing the amount of an earlier jury verdict returned in favor of Cornell from $184 million to approximately $53 million.

HP will be increasing its reserve to reflect the latest developments in the case and expects to record a 1 to 2 cent charge to second quarter fiscal year 2009 earnings per share (EPS). After a review of the preliminary financial results of the first two months of this fiscal quarter, HP’s second quarter FY09 EPS outlook remains unchanged excluding this one-time charge.

The patent dispute between HP and Cornell relates to allegations that HP’s PA-8000 family of microprocessors, and servers and workstations incorporating those processors, infringed a patent that describes a way of executing microprocessor instructions. The patent in the litigation expired on February 21, 2006, and therefore the litigation will not affect future sales of HP products.