Microsoft: judge tosses out record $1.52 billion Lucent verdict

Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, persuaded a judge to throw out a jury's record $1.52 billion verdict in a landmark case over Alcatel-Lucent's MP3 digital-music patents.
U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster in San Diego said today that the jury's damage award couldn't stand because one of the two patents wasn't infringed. The second disputed patent was co- owned by a German research institute and Microsoft had a valid license, Brewster ruled. The jury decided in February that Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft must pay $1.52 billion for violating Paris-based Alcatel's rights to the inventions, the largest patent verdict in U.S. history. The two sides argued in court in July over whether the verdict should stand. ``The jury's verdict was against the clear weight of the evidence,'' Brewster wrote in his 43-page order. Alcatel-Lucent, the world's largest maker of telecommunications equipment, argued the record damage award was fair and reasonable and ought to be increased because it covered sales only through November 2005. Continue At Source


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