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Microsoft's IP Losses Don't Always Stick
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| The software company set the record when a San Diego jury ordered it to pay
| $1.53 billion for infringing on Alcatel-Lucent's patents for MP3 digital
| audio technology. It was hit for $512 million in another case with
| Alcatel-Lucent. And Eolas Technologies Inc. won a $521 million verdict
| against it.
|
| But appeals courts have been kinder than juries to the software company. The
| $1.53 billion award was tossed last year . Microsoft appealed the $521
| million verdict and ultimately settled with Eolas for $30.4 million in 2007.
| The $512 million award is currently on appeal. Fish & Richardson has
| represented Microsoft against Alcatel-Lucent in both cases, at trial and on
| appeal.
|
| "Microsoft has certainly seen some large verdicts against it in the last few
| years," observed Stephen Akerley, a patent litigator with O'Melveny & Myers
| who wasn't involved with this week's case. "However, there are always
| appealable issues in these cases. And if you look back, Eolas ultimately
| settled, Alcatel-Lucent is still going on — it's impossible to tell where
| this case will end up."
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http://www.law.com/jsp/iplawandbusiness/PubArticleIPLB.jsp?id=1202429831746
Recent (joke):
FFII and EPO announce "Binaries-As-Prior-Art"
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| After years of confidential work, the European Patent Office (EPO) and the
| Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) today announce a
| radical way to improve software patent quality: Binaries-As-Prior-Art, or
| BAPA. BAPA combines a database of billions of compiled computer programs
| ("binaries") with a powerful Cloud search engine that can find any invention
| in microseconds.
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http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/FFII_and_EPO_announce_%22Binaries-As-Prior-Art%22
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