Microsoft coughs up $200m, licensing in VirnetX patent case
'We are pleased to work with them.' Riiight
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Microsoft has agreed to pony up $200m in a one-time patent infringement settlement payment to VirnetX Holding Corp. Redmond will also licence the internet security software maker's technology from now on.
In March this year Microsoft was ordered by a US federal jury in Texas to pay nearly $106m to VirnetX for infringing two internet communication patents.
Under the ruling Microsoft was required to pay $71.75m for infringing a virtual private network patent and $34m for violating a patent intended for setting up a VPN using a secure domain name service.
Following that win, when the jury ruled that Microsoft "willfully" used the firm's virtual private network (VPN) tech in products including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Office, VirnetX filed a second patent infringement claim against MS just a few days later.
In that lawsuit the company targeted Microsoft's Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms, alleging that those operating systems violated the same patents.
"We are pleased to work with VirnetX to bring these cases to a successful resolution through this settlement," said MS corp veep and deputy general counsel Tom Burt.
"We look forward to VirnetX's continued progress as it develops its technologies." ®
COMMENTS
Naughty
Stealing other people's technologies without paying. Naughty.
At least they paid for the important parts - the parts that iirc were lifted from FreeBSD. (I'll bet they were free ;)
All this stealing and yet their OS still feels about a decade behind the competition.
Look forward to working with...
equals "We will soon own their @sses..."
Resistance is, and always has been, futile.
Hmmm tasty
At least they've proven that they can take it... and with smile. Lord knows they've sure dished it out.
VirnetX didn't cut off the giant's head, but they sure did a good job of trimming its nails a little.
Wonder who it'll use them on next?
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