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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