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Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Microsoft loses patent suit, must pay $1.52B

February 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft loses patent suit, must pay $1.52B

So maybe this is one reason Microsoft has been going on the patent offensive. Microsoft was found to have infringed audio patents held by Alcatel-Lucent and must pay $1.52 billion in damages.

People sometimes chide the open source community for in-fighting, but never has it cost as much as the proprietary world's internal squabbles. I find the whole thing distasteful and sympathize with Microsoft on this one.

"We are concerned that this decision opens the door for Alcatel-Lucent to pursue action against hundreds of other companies who purchased the rights to use MP3 technology from Fraunhofer, the industry-recognized rightful licensor," Tom Burt, Microsoft's deputy general counsel, said in a statement.
Indeed.

Posted by Matt Asay on February 23, 2007 06:02 AM


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