The $1.5 billion jury verdict against Microsoft in an MP3 patent infringement case brought by Alcatel-Lucent was set aside yesterday by Judge Rudi Brewster of the U.S. District Court in San Diego. Legal experts had expected the massive jury award, the largest ever in a patent case, to be reduced because of the way the damages had been calculated.
But, I suspect that few people expected the verdict of the jury to be set aside altogether. Judge Brewster ruled that of the two infringement verdicts, one could not stand because Microsoft didn’t infringe on the patent. For the other patent, Judge Brewster said that ownership is murky and a new trial might be needed. (Indeed, a number of companies lay claim to MP3 invention.)
Alcatel-Lucent called the decision “shocking and disturbing” while Microsoft, naturally, hailed it as “a triumph of common sense.” The truth, of course, is somewhere in the middle, although patent law is a bear to parse.
What is clear is that this reversal might derail further litigation by Alcatel-Lucent against hundreds, if not thousands, of other companies that use MP3 technology in their products, from Apple all the way down to small start-ups. Had Alcatel-Lucent unambiguously prevailed against Microsoft in this suit (and it has other patent cases against the Redmond giant pending in the same court), you better believe it would have pressed on with more litigation.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:36 AM|Comments(0)
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