Microsoft gets legal relief against Alcatel-Lucent

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that speech coding technology used in several Microsoft developed applications does not infringe on an Alcatel-Lucent SA patent.

The judge in the end dismissed the lawsuit filed by the telecom giant which claimed that Windows Media Player, NetMeeting and Messenger programs from Microsoft infringed upon its patented speech pattern analysis technology.

Tom Burt, a Microsoft deputy general counsel spoke on this judgment: “This ruling reaffirms our confidence that once there’s judicial review of these complex patent cases, these Alcatel-Lucent claims ultimately won’t stand up.”

Mary Lou Ambrus, a spokeswoman for Alcatel-Lucent responded: “We are comfortable with our chances of success as this case makes its way through the legal system.”

The two companies are involved in 4 more ongoing cases. This latest ruling followed an earlier ruling which went against Microsoft. The jury in that case ordered Microsoft to pay $1.5 billion in damages. Microsoft is planning to appeal in that lawsuit.

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