Microsoft Comments On Patent Battle

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

27 February 2007

Software giant Microsoft has hit out at the verdict delivered last week in one of several ongoing patent battles being faced by the firm.

Microsoft was ordered by a San Diego court to pay telecoms firm Alcatel Lucent around $1.5 billion for infringing a patent held by Alcatel which relates to MP3 encoding technology.

Stating its intention to appeal, Microsoft argued that it licenses the patented technology from German firm Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Commenting on Thursday, Tom Burt, Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel announced that:

“We think this verdict is completely unsupported by the law or the facts. We will seek relief from the trial court, and if necessary appeal."

He continued:

"Like hundreds of other companies large and small, we believe that we properly licensed MP3 technology from its industry recognized licensor – Fraunhofer. The damages award seems particularly outrageous when you consider we paid Fraunhofer only $16 million to license this technology."

"Therefore, today’s outcome is disappointing for us and for the hundreds of other companies who have licensed MP3 technology. We are concerned that this decision opens the door for Alcatel-Lucent to pursue action against hundreds of other companies who purchased the rights to use MP3 technology from Fraunhofer, the industry-recognized rightful licensor."

"This case is only one part of a larger dispute between Microsoft and Alcatel-Lucent over intellectual property that began when Alcatel-Lucent took aggressive action against our customers and later against Microsoft. We will continue to defend our customers against unfounded claims and are pursuing a number of patent claims against Alcatel-Lucent, including the International Trade Commission case filed earlier this week.”

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