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| Alcatel wins $1.5 Billion verdict over Microsoft on MP3 |
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| By PatentMonkey on 2/23/2007 6:19 PM |
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Microsoft was ordered to pay Alcatel $1.5bn based on its Windows Media Player infringing the French telecoms' MP3 technology. The jury set a royalty of 0.5% for each of the two patents infringed (1.0% total) for sales on Windows Media Player back to version 6.1. The jury found Microsoft infringed the RE39,080 Patent for a "rate loop processor for perceptual encoder/decoder" and
US 5,341,457 on "perceptual coding of audio signals". If you're interesting in the details, like we were, keep reading...
Alcatel received the highest award ever for a patent infringement based on Microsoft's use of Alcatel's patented MP3 technology. The $1.5bn is significantly more than the previous high of $909mm Kodak was ordered to pay to Polaroid in the early 90s for violating patents related to instant cameras.
The case was originally filed in federal court in Virginia pitting Lucent against Gateway and Dell over patents related to color memory, video-search functions and controlling a computer with a stylus. Microsoft joined the case as it was obligated to indemnify and reimburse Gateway and Dell. Then Lucent, Dell, and Microsoft filed various other actions against one another in numerous jurisdictions ultimately leading to the cases being combined all in one jurisdiction - the Southern District Court for California. Judge Brewster then broke all the merged actions into several cases (all in his jurisdiction) based on technology. The case on the patented MP3 technology was the first one decided. Alcatel acquired Lucent last year resulting in the Alcatel v. Microsoft dispute.
Though difficult to track down, here is a folder of the Alcatel and Microsoft patents involved in the various disputes against one another. Specifically, the jury found that Windows Media Player infringed claims 1, 3, and 4 of the '080 patent and claims 1, 5, and 10 of the '457 patent. Specifically, here's a couple exemplary claims from the winning suit:
Claim 1 of the '080 patent reads as:
Claim 1 of the '457 patents reads as:
Considering that Alcatel paid $11.6 B for Lucent last year - receiving $1.56 B back on 2 of their patents could go a long way towards justifying the acquisition. With several more cases between the parties still pending the end result may be even bigger.
Links to patents in the various disputes between Alcatel and Microsoft are below:
RE39080
6874090
6823390
6661799
6339830
6112226
5864682
5659539
5649131
5347295
5341457
5227878
4958226
4910781
4763356
4701954
4383272 |
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Re: Alcatel wins $1.5 Billion verdict over Microsoft on MP3
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By Anonymous on
2/25/2007 3:04 PM
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I wonder if there is or can be an automatic way to discover large patent infringements. "Patent infringement compensation recovery" looks like an entire industry!
- Anand Chhatpar
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