Microsoft Loses Bid To Overturn $142 Million Patent Judgment

[OhioChick]

Source: Information Week

The court said there was no reason to overturn the jury's finding that Microsoft's Windows XP and Office products breached patents held by Michigan-based z4 Technologies.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
November 26, 2007 12:43 PM


A federal court has rejected Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s appeal of a jury decision last year to slap the software maker with a $142 million judgment for patent infringement.
In a ruling handed down last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said it saw no reason to overturn the jury's finding that Microsoft's Windows XP and Office products breached patents held by Michigan-based z4 Technologies.

The patents govern the use of product activation codes for preventing software piracy. In its ruling, the court said "substantial evidence supports the jury's verdict."

The court rejected Microsoft's claim that one of its older products, Brazilian Publisher '98, contained so-called prior art that should have invalidated z4 Technology's patents. Microsoft failed to meet "the burden of demonstrating by clear and convincing evidence" that BP '98 constituted prior art, the court said.

The court also nixed Microsoft's argument that the product keys users need to activate its software are not protected by z4's patents.



Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204203406

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. Only $142 million?

[MilesColtrane]

2. That penalty doesn't begin to generate the incentive for MS to stop stealing.

Their freaking market cap is over 308 billion. Steve Ballmer can find 142 million in change in the sofas at Redmond.

This judgment should have been for the equivalent of 1.5 to 2.5% of the company.

A five to six billion dollar settlement probably wouldn't hurt MS either, but it might make them think before they plunder again.