Microsoft told to pay Alcatel-Lucent US$368 mil.

Alcatel-Lucent had asked for about US$1.75 billion from Microsoft and Dell Inc. after claiming four of its patents were violated. The jury in federal court in San Diego Friday also said Dell infringed one patent and owed Alcatel-Lucent US$51,000.

The patents were owned by Lucent Technologies Inc., which Paris-based Alcatel SA acquired in 2006. Lucent sued in 2002 claiming infringement of patents for computer-video coding used in digital television, DVDs and video games; a method for entering data on computer forms; and the use of a stylus.

Microsoft rose as high as US$29.58 after the verdict was announced, or 1.4 percent above its closing price of US$29.16 in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Closing arguments were held last week before U.S. District Judge Marilyn L. Huff in San Diego, and the jury started its deliberations on March 28. In arguments, Alcatel-Lucent sought about US$1.29 billion from Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, US$340.6 million from Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, and another US$125 million that would be split by the two companies. Dell, the world’s second-biggest personal-computer maker, claimed Alcatel-Lucent waited too long to sue and didn’t file proper notices of infringement.

Lucent initially sued computer makers Dell and Gateway Inc. Microsoft then sued Lucent on concern that it might have to reimburse Dell in the case because the dispute relates to features within the Microsoft Windows operating system installed on Dell PCs.

Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, also filed counterclaims that both alleged the Lucent patents aren’t valid and challenged other patents held by the company. Gateway, now owned by Taipei-based Acer Inc., settled with Alcatel-Lucent in February.

The trial is the second stemming from a package of claims and counterclaims that U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster in San Diego split into five separate cases based on types of technology.

In February 2007, a San Diego jury ruled in the first trial that Microsoft’s Windows Media Player infringed Lucent patents related to the MP3 digital-audio standard and awarded Alcatel- Lucent a then-record US$1.52 billion in damages.

Brewster threw out the verdict in August, finding that one of the two patents wasn’t infringed and that Microsoft had a valid license for the second one. Alcatel-Lucent is appealing.

The case is Lucent Technologies Inc. v. Gateway Inc., 07CV2000, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California (San Diego).

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