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Judge overturns $1.5 Billion Microsoft fine

By Justin Mann

On August 7, 2007, 2:30 PM

After suffering what could have been a tough blow earlier this year, Microsoft has been handed a victory in the Alcatel-Lucent case. While all signs pointed to Microsoft paying $1.5 Billion to Alcatel-Lucent due to certain mp3 support in Windows, they appealed the ruling.

After looking at the case, the Judge decided to overturn the award, much to the dismay of Alcatel-Lucent. The decision doesn't seem to be based on whether or not Microsoft was in the wrong, but at least partly due to the way Microsoft was pursued:

On the second patent, Brewster ruled that the court should not have considered the patent dispute because a co-owner of the intellectual property was not a party to the lawsuit.
This is a setback for Alcatel-Lucent, whom, like many companies, had sought to use existing patents as a source of revenue via the courts. Whether or not they plan to drop claim now isn't mentioned, but I doubt we've heard the last of them.

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