Millions of fine Microsoft in patent case swept off the table

Microsoft does not have to pay $388 million in damages for patent infringement. A judge ruled that the jury had been mistaken when it awarded the large amount to the patent owner in April of this year.

In October 2003, the Singaporean company Uniloc filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging that the activation method of Windows XP and Office XP infringed a Uniloc patent. According to Microsoft, the activation of XP differed from the method described in the patent, so that there was no infringement. Microsoft also believed that the patent was invalid, because the technique described was very obvious.

However, the jury was convinced by Uniloc’s arguments and ruled that there was indeed a patent infringement. Uniloc’s lawyers showed the jury a graph showing that Windows XP and some versions of Word together generated $19.1 billion in sales. Uniloc demanded 2.9 percent of this total, or $ 564 million. The jury ultimately awarded $388 million.

Microsoft appealed this ruling, and on Tuesday Judge William Smith ruled that the jury had misunderstood the case and reached a verdict without a sufficient legal basis. He therefore brushed aside the compensation. Even if an appeals court ruled that the jury’s decision was correct, there will have to be a new trial, because Uniloc should never have shown the amount of 19.1 billion to the jury, the judge said. Uniloc had not yet commented on the verdict, so reports Bloomberg.