Microsoft gets relief in Alcatel-Lucent case

Microsoft gets relief in Alcatel-Lucent case

Microsoft would not be required to pay $1.5 billion in damages to Alcatel-Lucent. This was announced in a judgment by a panel of federal appeals judges.

The company was told to pay the amount by a jury in U.S. District Court in San Diego last year.

Microsoft was found guilty of infringing on two patents owned by Alcatel-Lucent related to MP3 music file format.

A judge later ruled that the company did not infringe one of the patents mentioned in the case in their Windows Media Player software.

The latest ruling says that Microsoft had in fact paid $16 million in exchange for use of the technology connected to patent owned jointly by Alcatel-Lucent and Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.

Microsoft representative Tom Burt spoke about this latest ruling: “The Federal Circuit’s ruling is a victory for consumers of digital music and a triumph for common sense in the patent system.”