<p>The online retailer Newegg has lost a patent case centering on web encryption, after a Texas jury rejected its argument that a claim from the company TQP Development was invalid. The jury ordered Newegg to pay $2.3 million less than half the damages TQP had sought.</p><p>The case is seen as a victory for TQP, widely seen as a "nonpracticing entity" whose sole source of income is settlements and legal fees related to its patents. Retailers and others often term such firms "patent trolls," as NPR reported this summer.</p><p>TQP has previously wielded the patent, which it acquired in 2006, to extract more than $40 million in settlements from Microsoft, Amazon, and scores of other companies. Newegg says it will appeal the verdict, which followed several cryptography experts' testimony on its behalf.</p><p>One of those experts was a pioneer in public cryptography, Whitfield Diffie, who on Friday generated one of the trial's most memorable exchanges. It was highlighted by Ars Technica, which has followed Newegg's crusade to fight patent trolls.</p><p><a href="http://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-jury-orders-newegg-to-pay-23-million-in-patent-troll-case/">Keep reading...</a></p>