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Topic: Alcatel-Lucent MP3 patent judgment tossed out (Read 7962 times) previous topic - next topic
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Alcatel-Lucent MP3 patent judgment tossed out

Link to DailyTech article - Aug 7, 07

Quote
Today, U.S. federal district judge Rudi Brewster reversed the jury’s ruling claiming that Microsoft had infringed on the patents held by Alcatel-Lucent and threw out the settlement. 

Bewster said that the record $1.5 billion settlement could not stand because Microsoft had not violated one of the two patents related to MP3 files at the core of the case. Also in question was the ownership of the second patent with the judge saying that a new trial might be needed to determine who actually owns that patent.


I have to side with Microsoft on this one, if only for the fact that Alcatel conveniently waited so long for this "submarine" patent trolling.  An interesting comment another person made was that if this judgment had stood, would Apple and other online digital music stores be liable as well?

Alcatel-Lucent MP3 patent judgment tossed out

Reply #1 –
Quote from: hellokeith on
I have to side with Microsoft on this one, if only for the fact that Alcatel conveniently waited so long for this "submarine" patent trolling.  An interesting comment another person made was that if this judgment had stood, would Apple and other online digital music stores be liable as well?

totally agree. It is incredible how companies wait till a technology reaches real usage to sue.

Alcatel-Lucent MP3 patent judgment tossed out

Reply #2 –
Quote from: hellokeith on
An interesting comment another person made was that if this judgment had stood, would Apple and other online digital music stores be liable as well?
Nothing morally wrong with siding with MS (or anyone else) as long as they're in the right *shrugs* Every commercial MP3-using entity would have been liable. Apple, Creative, iRiver, etc. FLOSS projects would also have yet another licensing entity to worry about upsetting. To be honest, even if Alcatel really did have a concrete case, a decision in their favor would have been a disaster.
EAC>1)fb2k>LAME3.99 -V 0 --vbr-new>WMP12 2)MAC-Extra High

Alcatel-Lucent MP3 patent judgment tossed out

Reply #3 –
Glad that the previous judgement was overturned. I hope Alcatel-Lucent and Fraunhofer can agree and not try to make money out of license owners!

Alcatel-Lucent MP3 patent judgment tossed out

Reply #4 –
I was just about to post asking if anyone knew the current status on this issue. I'm no microsoft lover, but, in this case, I'm happy for them (and us).
 

Alcatel-Lucent MP3 patent judgment tossed out

Reply #5 –
Alcatel did not wait several years before suing regarding those patents.
They only recently acquired related rights during the merge with Lucent (previously known as Bell Labs, part of AT&T). The key issue was regarding rights regarding joint research done by K. Brandenburg and JJ.

This mess is the results of 2 simultaneous messes: the mp3 patent situation, which is not totally clear, and the current patent war that is going since a few years between Microsoft and Alcatel.