SEATTLE (AP) - A jury ordered Microsoft Corp. on Friday to pay $367.4
million to Alcatel-Lucent for infringing on two patents, a decision the software
maker vowed to appeal.
The U.S. District Court jury in San Diego found that handwriting recognition
technology in Microsoft's Tablet PC operating system infringed on pattern
recognition patents held by Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent.
The jury also decided that some of Microsoft's programs, including the
Outlook e-mail application and the Windows Mobile operating system, infringed on
an Alcatel-Lucent patent in the way users select calendar dates from a menu.
"We do not believe the jury's verdict against Microsoft on the two user
interface patents is supported by the facts or the law," said Tom Burt, a deputy
general counsel at Microsoft, in a statement. "We will move immediately to have
the two verdicts against Microsoft overturned."
Microsoft was also found not to have infringed on a video decoding patent
related to the way the Windows operating system plays DVDs.
Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Mary Lou Ambrus said in a statement that the
company was disappointed with the video patent decision.
The case decided Friday was just one of many stemming from 15 patent claims
made in 2003 by Lucent Technologies Inc. against PC makers Gateway Inc. and Dell
Inc. for technology developed by Bell Labs, Lucent's research arm. Alcatel
bought Lucent in 2006.
In 2003, Microsoft added itself to the list of defendants to protect its
PC-maker partners, saying the patents were closely tied to its Windows operating
system.
A judge threw out two of the 2003 patent claims and scheduled six separate
trials to consider the remaining disputes, in which the PC makers remain
defendants.
The last of the lawsuits is scheduled to begin April 22 in San Diego. At
that time, Microsoft said it will also make nine of its own patent claims
against Alcatel-Lucent.
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