Digital Trends
A federal jury in Minnesota has found Jammie Thomas-Rasset guilty of infringing 24 music copyrights and awarded the record labels a stunning $1.92 million in damages to the music industry. The jury verdict represents the second time Thomas has been found guilty of infringement, although the first verdict—for a mere $220,000 in damages—was thrown out by the trail judge because he found he had made an error instructing the jury, thus opening the door to a retrial.
A jury in a San Diego federal court has ruled that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console did not violate a patent owned by Alcatel-Lucent SA. The jury also rejected the Paris-based company’s bid for $419 million in damages. The parent in question dates back to 1993 and covers encoding video frames. The jury also found that another Microsoft patent involved in the case was invalid since it didn’t cover a new invention, and that Alcatel did not violate four other Microsoft patents, for which Microsoft was seeking $9.5 million in damages.
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.
A $29.5 million verdict in a patent infringement lawsuit against Internet auction house eBay will bring changes in how the company conducts sales of fixed-price merchandise.
Jay Monahan, eBay’s vice president for litigation, said the company still believes the patents belonging to Virginia inventor Thomas G. Woolston are invalid, but nonetheless plans to implement design changes that will avoid infringing on them in the future.
A federal judge Wednesday ordered the award paid to Woolston and his Great Falls, Va., company, MercExchange. In May, a federal jury in Norfolk found that eBay willfully infringed on Woolston’s patents with features like eBay’s “Buy It Now” option, which offers a way for people to buy auction items at a fixed price.
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