Microsoft’s $358M punishment nixed by judge in Alcatel patent case
Two federal appeals court judges earlier today overturned a $358 million award of damages against Microsoft, The Seattle Times reports. The judges didn’t dispute that the calendar display in Microsoft Outlook infringes on an Alcatel-Lucent patent, but said the $358 million award lacked supporting evidence to determine the size of the damages.
Alcatel-Lucent filed multiple lawsuits in November 2006. The company claimed that Microsoft Outlook, Money and Mobile software infringed on a patent Alcatel held. Alcatel pointed to Outlook’s calendaring function, which displays the month’s calendar as a grid, then translates the date the user chooses into the appointment date form.
Microsoft argued that the feature was only worth $6.5 million. In the summer of 2008, a jury agreed with Alcatel, which estimated the feature was worth $358 million.
The case will be turned over to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California to set damages.
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About the Author, Paul Boutin
Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.