Microsoft ordered to pay $388m patent infringement damages
PrintAstonishingly, Microsoft plans appeal
Posted in Applications, 9th April 2009 09:22 GMT
Free whitepaper – Dell PowerEdge servers product guide
Microsoft was slapped with a $388m patent infringement fine yesterday, following a lengthy legal row with anti-piracy software vendor Uniloc.
Redmond said it was disappointed with the verdict and added it planned to appeal.
The long-running lawsuit was originally brought by Uniloc USA and its Singapore-based parent company in 2003, in which the firm alleged Microsoft had infringed its patented technology for its software activation methods.
The trial began on 23 March and the jury in the case reached its verdict in federal court in Rhode Island on Wednesday.
"We believe that we do not infringe, that the patent is invalid and that this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported," a Microsoft spokesman told Reuters. "We will ask the court to overturn the verdict."
It is understood that the damages award against Microsoft in the infringement case is one of the largest on record in legal disputes involving patents. ®
Free whitepaper – SPECjbb2005 performance and power consumption on Dell, HP, and IBM blade servers
The Register Agile Data Center Summit
What Exchange can't do - and Dell can
Checklist: Midmarket ERP Solutions
Analyst Keynote: The Register Agile Data Center Summit
Office 2010 fights Google with SharePoint bloat
Ubuntu's Karmic Koala bares fangs at Windows 7
Change your views: OS X tags exploited
Microsoft 'Dallas' muscles Google data crusade