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Microsoft To Pay $200M In Patent Dispute

Posted by Soulskill on from the check's-in-the-mail dept.

Pickens writes "eWeek reports that Microsoft has announced it will pay $200 million to settle a patent-infringement suit against it by VirnetX, which alleged that the software giant infringed on its patents related to communications, virtualization and collaboration technology. This payment represents a substantial markup from the $105.7 million that a Texas jury awarded in March when it found that Microsoft had infringed on two US patents held by VirnetX. Microsoft will license VirnetX technology for its own products. 'We believe that this successful resolution of our litigation with Microsoft will allow us to focus on the upcoming pilot system that will showcase VirnetX's automatic Virtual Private Network technology,' says Kendall Larsen, VirnetX Holding Corp.'s CEO. East Texas courts have a reputation as a good place to pursue intellectual property suits against larger corporations. While many of these cases seem to be settled out of court — or dismissed as totally frivolous — recent lawsuits such as those leveled by i4i and VirnetX are notable for at least extending to the Big Judgment phase."

5 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Clarification by dward90 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It may be worth nothing that 200M is not *in addition to* the 100M from an earlier lawsuit: From TFA: "In a joint statement Monday, VirnetX and Microsoft announced that both lawsuits would be dismissed as part of the $200 million settlement. Microsoft will also license the VirnetX patents, the companies said." The summary doesn't seem intentionally misleading, but I did not gather this to be the case.

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    My other sig is clever.
  2. East Texas by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 2, Informative

    East Texas courts have a reputation as a good place to pursue intellectual property suits against larger corporations

    It is not actually that good.

    See also this comment on a previous story.

  3. Re:Awww what a shame by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2, Informative

    They patent everything because the system requires them to.

    The "system requires them to" part is true, but, nonetheless, Microsoft (together with many other large corps) has filed several amicus curiae briefs in support of software patents in relevant court cases in U.S.

  4. Re:The bigger you are by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Informative

    For someone who's been around as long as you have, you sure are ignorant. Microsoft has indeed sued other companies for patents. It was covered quite a bit on Slashdot at the time. Don't go spreading the misinformation that Microsoft is a benign patent owner.

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    Qxe4
  5. Re:The bigger you are by magpie · · Score: 2, Informative

    Erm tell that to Tomtom and a few others when it comes to FAT.