More Alcatel-Lucent/Microsoft Patent Cases in Pipeline
Alcatel-Lucent’s patent victory over Microsoft is only the first in a string of cases the company filed when it was just Lucent over patents that the original Bell Labs had developed. This year will see 3 more cases involving Microsoft, Dell and Gateway over various digital audio-visual technologies. A jury in the U.S. Dist. Court, San Diego gave Alcatel-Lucent a $1.52 billion award against Microsoft (CD Feb 23 p1). Alcatel-Lucent wouldn’t comment on the outcome’s effect on future suits. Microsoft denied the decision would have any effect.
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The cases stem from one filed by Lucent in San Diego, in which it alleged infringement by compression and recognition technology in the Windows operating system, and then split. The next trial, set for March, alleges Microsoft, Dell and Gateway violated a patent by Bell Labs involving speech coding technology. A May trial of the 3 companies involves a Bell Labs patent for speech coding user interface technology. The last case involves Dell and Gateway and involves VoIP caller ID and video interface technologies.
Microsoft contested the damages in last week’s decision, saying they were based on high-end computers when it’s unclear the damages should have been based on total computer prices in the first place. The company contends the $1.52 billion penalty is disproportionate to the $16 million Microsoft paid for the MP3 technologies Alcatel-Lucent claims were infringing. “We will seek relief from the trial court, and if necessary appeal,” a spokesman said.
Microsoft licensed the contested technology from German company Fraunhofer. Fraunhofer and American sales partner Thompson list as customers Adobe, AOL, Bloomberg, Cakewalk, Casio, Cisco, Clarion, NEC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hyundai, Intel, Netgear, Nintendo, Nokia, Seiko, Sirius and many more.
Microsoft has filed a number of claims against Alcatel- Lucent, notably with the International Trade Commission early last week.