$1.5B Fine Overturned For Microsoft

ddrichardson writes "Following up on an earlier story, Microsoft's $1.5bn fine in the case with Alcatel-Lucent has been overturned. Microsoft are claiming a "victory for consumers". From the article: 'A US court has overturned a decision ordering Microsoft to pay phone firm Alcatel-Lucent $1.52bn (£777m) for infringing music patents. The federal judge in San Diego reversed a jury's decision which had ruled that Microsoft's Media Player software infringed on two Alcatel patents.'"

Re:No, Patents Suck Because of This.

[Macthorpe]

No matter whether the system sucks or not, if this had stood, quite a few other companies would have been subject to the same kind of payout. I think someone below posted this link to a list: Click to read. [mp3licensing.com]

On that list are IBM, Linspire and Sun. The original decision was bad for everyone, though it obviously didn't knock you off your pedestal.

Re:Good decision

[cooldev]

So if A rents out B's house without permission for 1 dollar per month to C, then C should be able to pay B 1 dollar per month for the place, after the mistake (that it is B's house, not A's) is discovered?

It's more like: 'A' rents out a large community of apartments to 200 customers(http://www.mp3licensing.com/licensees/in dex.asp) for a decade or so for $750/month. Everybody in the world has long acknowledged that 'A' had the rights to rent out that property. Then, out of nowhere, 'B' steps in and claims to own part of the property because they once helped install the sidewalks and demands that tenants not only have to pay $62,000/month, but that they also must pay that for each month they had been living there.

If the tenant had known the rent was $62,000/month they never would have even remotely considered living there in the first place, especially when they had a rather nice vacation home in WMA on the side anyway.

The above figures were loosely crafted to reflect the money involved to give an idea of the magnitude of the discrepancy.

I'm a believer in IP, but not submarine patents and completely outrageous purported damages awarded by juries. This is true a hundred times over when the person or company tried in good faith co correctly license the IP in the first place!

Re:Why is everyone so apologitic?

[91degrees]

They produce software that generally does a competent job at a price that many people can afford.