The $1.52 billion verdict, the largest ever in a patent dispute, was handed down yesterday at the US District Court in San Diego, ruling that Alcatel-Lucent’s patent on MP3 technology that was developed by Bell Labs among others.
“At issue is the way the Windows Media Player software from Microsoft plays audio files using MP3, the most common method of distributing music on the Internet. If the ruling stands, Apple and hundreds of other companies that make products that play MP3 files, including portable players, computers and software, could also face demands to pay royalties to Alcatel.
Microsoft and others have licensed MP3 — not from Alcatel-Lucent, but from a consortium led by the Fraunhofer Institute, a large German research organization that was involved in the format’s development, along with Bell Labs and the French electronics company Thomson.” (Court says Microsoft must pay… Int’l Hearld Tribune)
This case is largely far from over, likely to end up in DC at the DC circuit court of appeals that hears patent appeals, but if ashes of Lucent a company long known for their magnificent fall, the purchase by Alcatel may prove to have been a very good move.
