In what may be the final note on a series of lawsuits that have been dragging its way through the courts since 2003, a U.S. Appeals court has ruled (PDF) that Microsoft doesn’t have to pay a $1.5 billion judgement levied against it because it didn’t actually violate MP3 patents in its Windows Media Player software.
“We affirm the district court’s dismissal of the infringement claims,” the court wrote in its ruling, finding the Microsoft did not infringe on a patent now owned by Alcatel, and that the Redmond company had adequately covered its based by paying $16 million to Germany’s Fraunhofer Gesellshaft to MP3 technology.
