OK, I had no idea that major litigation is underway that could give tech giant Alcatel-Lucent billions in royalties from just about every major Internet company out there. And I could find very little material on the public Internet that would bring me up to speed on this case.
But, here’s what I do know: a jury trial is underway in San Diego that could result in Microsoft being forced to pay $2 billion to Alcatel-Lucent for the Redmond software titan’s use of MP3 technology in its Windows Media Player. Alcatel-Lucent filed the infringement suit against Microsoft arguing that it’s not being paid for its patent on the audio technology.
Microsoft, on the other hand, along with just about every other Internet-related company, is paying MP3 royalties to German researcher Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS through Thomson SA. Somehow Alcatel is claiming that the royalties should flow to them since Fraunhofer worked on the technology with BellLabs, which was a predecessor company to Lucent, which Alcatel acquired last year.
The prospect of billions of easy dollars flowing into Alcatel-Lucent strikes me as news, particularly given that the royalty payments involve MP3 technology, which the music industry is starting to embrace in a bigger way.
Cynthia Brumfield at 9:40 AM|Comments(0)
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