Hauppauge companies win $10M in AOL lawsuit

A Hauppauge software-development company that sued AOL Inc. for patent infringement has won a $10-million jury award.

A federal jury in U.S. District Court in Central Islip made the damage award to Bascom Global Internet Services Inc. on Friday after a trial that lasted about a week. It agreed with the private company's contention that AOL, a Manhattan-based publicly traded company, used an Internet filtering service that was based on a Bascom patent. The local company develops software that filters adult and other "inappropriate" content on the Internet remotely. It provides services to schools and other educational organizations.

Bascom filed the lawsuit in 2008, and it covered infringements from 2003 to the present, said David Stone, managing partner of Stone & Magnanini in Short Hills, N.J., the company's lead attorney in the case.

"Their product infringed our patent, and that is what the jury found," Stone said.

It isn't known whether AOL will appeal. A lead attorney in the case, Joseph Palys of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, in Virginia, declined to comment.

AOL didn't return a call seeking comment.