Microsoft will fight $388 million verdict in anti-piracy patent case |
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Microsoft will fight $388 million verdict in anti-piracy patent case
Microsoft says it will ask a federal court to overturn a $388 million jury verdict in which it was found to have violated an anti-piracy patent held by the Uniloc security software company.
"We are very disappointed in the jury verdict," the company said in a statement this afternoon. "We believe that we do not infringe, that the patent is invalid and that this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported."
As documented by ZDNet's Larry Dignan, the case dates to 2003, involving a software-registration system patent issued to Uniloc in the mid-1990s. A federal jury in Rhode Island found the patent to be valid, and ruled that Microsoft's product activation technology infringed on the patent. Windows XP, Office XP, and Windows Server 2003 were the subjects of the verdict, CNet's Ina Fried reports.
Microsoft most recently made patent news for filing suit against portable navigation company TomTom, then quickly reaching a settlement, but the Redmond company has historically been a defendant in patent cases much more frequently than it has been a plaintiff.
About Todd Bishop
Todd Bishop is co-founder and managing editor of TechFlash. He has covered Microsoft and the technology industry for more than five years, most recently as a daily newspaper reporter and blogger based in Seattle.
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