Alcatel Prevails in Microsoft Patent Fight

A jury has awarded Alcatel $367.4 million after finding Microsoft violated two of the company's patents...but it's a lot less than the $1.5 billion Alcatel originally won.

A jury has award Alcatel-Lucent $367.4 million in damages, after finding Redmond software giant Microsoft violated two of the company’s patents related to date entry and handwriting recognition in tablet computers.

The suit is the latest chapter in several long-standing patent dispute between the two companies; in February of last year, a San Diego jury ordered Microsoft to pay Alcatel $1.52 billion for infringing two patents related to converting audio to the popular MP3 format. However, U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster overturned the jury’s damage ruling, and Microsoft seems confident the same thing will happen this time.

“We will move immediately to have the two verdicts against Microsoft overturned,” said Microsoft deputy counsel Tom Burt, in a statement. “We feel confident the verdicts will be overturned, just as the court overturned a verdict last year by a San Diego jury.”

The patents in this suit concern a method for entering dates into calendars, and another covering handwriting pattern recognition that’s used in tablet computers.