Lawsuit

March 4, 2007 |

Microsoft wins speech patent dispute with Alcatel-Lucent, but other claims remain

By Ruben Francia

A week after Microsoft was ordered to hand over $1.5 billion in an Alcatel-Lucent MP3 patent dispute, a judge in a U.S. District Court in San Diego granted a summary judgment of non-infringement for Microsoft in a case related to a speech-coding technology patent held by Alcatel-Lucent.

This is the only patent that was to be considered during a second trial in the series of claims, which had been scheduled on March 19. That trial has now been cancelled.

Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Joan Campion acknowledged the judge's ruling in the speech coding case and told News that she is "comfortable with our chances of success as the case makes its way through the legal system."

"This ruling reaffirms our confidence that once there's judicial review of these complex patent cases, these Alcatel-Lucent claims ultimately won't stand up," said Tom Burt, Microsoft corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, in an e-mail statement to Computerworld.

Four related patent suits are still pending in the court. The next and third case is scheduled to be held May 21 dealing with Alcatel-Lucent's patent-infringement claims, which focuses on user-interface technology and lists Microsoft, Dell and Gateway as defendants. The rest will follow this year. All six stemmed from claims made in 2003 by Lucent Technologies against computer makers Gateway Inc. and Dell Inc. for technology developed by Bell Labs, its research arm.

I wonder who is going to win the next trial and who will come out the overall winner. For now, it's not yet over until it's over.

source : tech.blorge.com