Microsoft loses Excel patent appeal
Print storyThat will be $65m, please
Posted in Applications, 19th June 2006 09:15 GMT
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The US district court has upheld a finding against Microsoft that it infringed on a patent in making its Excel spreadsheet.
In June last year, a judge ruled Microsoft had infringed a patent owned by Guatemalan inventor Armando Amado.
Vince Belusko, a partner at Amando's law firm Morrison & Foerster, said last week: "This ruling signals the validity of the patent and confirms Microsoft's liability of infringement on Mr Amado's software program. We are hopeful that the District Court will now award Mr Amado substantial monies from that escrow account when the matter is returned to the court."
The court ordered Microsoft to put $65m in an escrow account to cover payment to Amado.
The case covers a way to link Excel spreadsheets to databases. Amado says he discussed licensing the software to Microsoft but the software giant eventually declined. The feature then appeared in later versions of the spreadsheet.
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