Nortel Networks Corp., North America's biggest maker of telephone equipment, lost a $28.1 million jury verdict in a patent-infringement case brought by Australia's Ipernica Ltd. A federal court jury in Marshall, Texas, decided yesterday that Nortel used Ipernica's ``statistical multiplexing'' invention without permission. The panel said Nortel's infringement was deliberate, a finding that could as much as triple the award if U.S. District Judge T. John Ward agrees. ``We await the trial judge's final judgment with anticipation,'' Ipernica Chief Executive Officer Graham Griffiths said in a statement. The verdict is the fourth-largest in a patent case this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. Ipernica sued Nortel in 2005 in the Eastern District of Texas, which ranked second among the most favorable for patent lawsuits from 1995 to 2006, a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP study this year said. The disputed technology improves the transmission of telephone calls, television images and other data over a digital communications network. Ipernica, formerly known as QPSX, licenses intellectual property rights, such as patents, according to the West Perth, Australia-based company's Web site. The jury found Ipernica's multiplexing patent is valid.