Software & Services | 07 May 2007 :
A US Federal judge has approved the $1.53
billion damages awarded to Alcatel-Lucent for Microsoft’s patent infringements
with its Windows Media Player.
Judge okays $1.5bn Microsoft patent fine
The award was originally made back in
February by a jury, but had to be signed off by a Federal judge.
San Diego US District Court Judge Rudi M Brewster agreed with the original
verdict that Microsoft’s Windows Media Player software infringes on two patents
owned by Alcatel-Lucent.
Microsoft had argued that it had licensed
the technology from German research group Fraunhofer Gesselschaft, which it
claims is the actual owner of the technology.
The software giant said that it will
challenge the ruling at a hearing in June, following a patent win against
AT&T in the US Supreme Court earlier this week.
AT&T had claimed that Windows infringed
on its digital speech technology, but the court ruled that US patent
law does not apply to software sent to foreign countries.
The same ruling rejected a claim that
AT&T was entitled to damages for every computer manufactured outside the US that
uses the speech technology.
Another lawsuit brought by Alcatel-Lucent
over two patents for computer interface technology is due to go to trial in
three weeks’ time with Microsoft, Dell and Gateway as defendants.