| Microsoft convicted to a fine of $1.52 billion |
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| Friday, 23 February 2007 | ||||
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This is the sentence expressed by a US court who condemned the IT colossus to pay $1.52 billion to French phone equipment company Alcatel-Lucent.Alcatel had sued Microsoft for damages because, according to the French firm, two patents related to the standards used for converting audio into MP3 files had been breached. Microsoft never admitted any responsibility and declared that it will appeal against the court’s decision since it was supported by "unsupported by the law or facts," this means that this verdict could not be the final judgement. Microsoft said it has already licensed the MP3 technology from the German firm Fraunhofer for $16 million.
On this proposal, Microsoft’s lawyer Tom Burt expressed the company’s concern about the fact that a similar decision could “open the door for Alcatel-Lucent to pursue action against hundreds of other companies who purchased the rights to use MP3 technology from Fraunhofer, the industry-recognized rightful licensor." Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Joan Campion said that the company was satisfied with the court’s decision but refused to release any further declaration about the trial. Microsoft and Alcatel are involved in a several patent disputes, including a suit over the video-decoding technology in Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console.
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