Microsoft Trial Misconduct Cost $40 Million

SpuriousLogic writes "The judge who banned Microsoft from selling its Word document program in the US due to a patent violation tacked an additional $40 million onto a jury's $200 million verdict because the software maker's lawyers engaged in trial misconduct, court records reveal. In a written ruling, Judge Leonard Davis, of US District Court for Eastern Texas, chastised Microsoft's attorneys for repeatedly misrepresenting the law in presentations to jurors.'Throughout the course of trial Microsoft's trial counsel persisted in arguing that it was somehow improper for a non-practicing patent owner to sue for money damages,' Davis wrote. The judge cited a particular incident in which a Microsoft lawyer compared plaintiff i4i, Inc. to banks that sought bailout money from the federal government under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. 'He further persisted in improperly trying to equate i4i's infringement case with the current national banking crisis implying that i4i was a banker seeking a "bailout,"' Davis said."

Comments

Why are American Judges demanding so much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

$2 million for mp3s, $40 million for a bad argument.

Do these judges send a $10 million bill to toilet paper companies when they have to wipe their backside?

Whoever wins...

[Anonymous Coward]

We lose.

Re:Damnit! I'm torn!

[Zordak]

It's willful infringement, which means they were fully aware of the patent and decided to do it anyway. Before we just dismiss i4i as trolls, maybe we could consider the possibility that they did something innovative and Microsoft flagrantly ripped it off, giving them the finger and saying, "If you don't like it, we'll see you in court." Maybe you don't like software patents, but they are the law. i4i layed down a lot of money to get a patent issued because the current state of the law made that patent valuable. Seriously, everybody on /. seems to assume that every single patent infringement lawsuit is a "patent troll." But patent law is a lot more complicated than that. And I imagine that about nine out of ten people here would have the exact same reaction if Microsoft ripped off their product: let's sue.