A verdict was reached on Friday in the patent lawsuit between Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft which has been going on for several years. Microsoft is being ordered to fork over $70 million dollars for violating patents in several products including Outlook.
The lawsuit was originally brought to the table by Lucent in 2003, prior to its merger with Alcatel. Microsoft originally lost a lawsuit for the infringement but the decision was overturned by a judge claiming that Microsoft infringed on only one of the two patents. Lucent appealed and eventually settled some of the issues with Microsoft. A few issues still remained and both companies continued to go back and forth in court until today.
“This [latest] trial came about after the Federal Circuit ordered a new trial on damages, overturning an original judgment of over $500 million for the same patent. Today’s verdict reflects a positive trend in the law of patent damages stemming from the Federal Circuit’s earlier opinion in this and other cases. However, we continue to maintain that current law requires a genuine apportionment of damages when the infringement is directed to a small feature of a feature-rich product, and we are reviewing the verdict in that light and considering next steps,” Microsoft said in a statement.
Microsoft, of course, declined to comment further and would not say if the company was considering filing an appeal. Alcatel-Lucent did not offer a comment either.
