The judge in the trial
has over-ruled a jury decision that Microsoft should make the
payout because he said that patent infringement in one case had not
taken place.
The format for MP3 audio files was invented almost 20 years ago
and more than one company claims to have patents covering the
technology. The Microsoft case turned on whether or not its use of
MP3 files in its operating system violated patents which
Alcatel-Lucent claims to own.
Microsoft's Windows Media Player plays files using the MP3
standard, and the company paid a licence fee to a consortium which
includes Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, which owns patents
relating to the technology.
Alcatel-Lucent, though, said that Microsoft's use violated
patents relating to technology developed by its predecessor, Bell
Labs, before it worked with Fraunhofer, and that it was due
royalties from Microsoft.
A jury trial in the District Court in San Diego in California
found that Microsoft had violated patents and awarded $1.5 billion
in damages to Alcatel-Lucent, a huge sum that was derived from the
large numbers of Windows operating systems sold by Microsoft.
Trial judge Rudi Brewster has overruled the jury, though, and
has said that one of the two patents involved in the case was not
in fact violated by Microsoft.
Of the second supposed patent violation, Brewster said that it
was not even certain that Alcatel-Lucent owns the patent, and that
a new trial could be required to settle that question.
Alcatel-Lucent said it would appeal the ruling. "The reversal of
the judge's own pre-trial and post-trial rulings is shocking and
disturbing,'' an Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman told Bloomberg. "The
jury unanimously agreed with us. We believe their decision should
stand."
Microsoft welcomed the ruling as "a victory for consumers of
digital music and a triumph for common sense in the patent system,"
according to Brad Smith, the company's general counsel.
