Microsoft won a reversal of the $1.52 Billion judgment to Alcatel-Lucent covering MP3 patents. TechMeme has links to all the stories. The $1.5B judgment was the largest in patent history, and covered two patents around MP3 technology. Microsoft had previously paid to license the MP3 technology from the Fraunhofer Institute which invented the technology and has been collecting royalties from many companies. The judge found no infringement of the other patent. C/Net News has more background on the facts of the original case.
Jury trial vs. bench trial - It is quite common for jury trial verdicts to be overturned in appellate courts where judges preside and decide. Patent cases are complicated from a technology point of view. The case law and interpretations are no less confusing. Judges usually do a better job deciding such cases and are less emotional when it comes to damage awards. As you might imagine there are even certain courts that are more astute and experienced in patent law than other courts.
This ruling by the court is good news for any web site or music player that uses MP3 or derivatives. Brad Feld, a well known VC and outspoken patent law critic, wrote "One stomp forward, another stomp back" . Brad says " Two things happened today that are notable: the gigantically stupid $1.52 billion judgment for Alcatel-Lucent against Microsoft was overturned and a hard to find company named Aloft Media sued Microsoft and Adobe for “user interfaces in a network browsing window that display the content at a specific URL as well as the URL itself somewhere on or around the window.”
Patent lunacy continues unabated. There are some hopeful signs. The Patent Reform Act of 2007 just passed the US House. The US Senate also has a patent bill that must be reconciled before going to the president for signature.
