A U.S. court has ruled that IT giant Microsoft has breached Alcatel-Lucent's patents for converting audio files to MP3. Microsoft was ordered to pay out $1.52 billion to French phone equipment firm, Alcatel-Lucent in what has been called the largest patent award in history. At the heart of the case is the issue whether Alcatel should be paid for the technology when Microsoft says it has already paid who it thought was the licensee, Germany's Fraunhofer Institute and Bell Labs. Alcatel, however, claims it was not paid its fair share of the patent since 2003 when the firm bought Bell. Analysts are now saying this verdict could have a wider impact with impact on hundreds of companies utilizing the format, which includes the likes of Apple, and RealNetworks.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 12:06:18 am into the following categories: In The News

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