Alcatel-Lucent SA is demanding billions of dollars from technology that Microsoft Corp invented, a lawyer for the software company told jurors in California on Friday.
The jury of seven women and one man began deliberations on Friday afternoon in US District Court in San Diego, California, to determine whether Microsoft and Dell Inc should have to pay US$1.75 billion to Alcatel-Lucent, which claims four of its patents were infringed.
The patents were owned by Lucent Technologies Inc, which 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.
"Lucent is asking for billions of dollars in this case based on our technology," Microsoft lawyer Juanita Brooks said in her summation. "They want our success to turn into their success, and it's not right."
Closing arguments started on Thursday before US District Judge Marilyn Huff. The jury will resume deliberations today.
Alcatel-Lucent, the world's largest supplier of telecommunications equipment, is seeking about US$1.29 billion from Microsoft, US$340.6 million from Dell, and another US$125 million that would be split by the two companies. The trial began on Feb. 20.
The companies should be responsible for infringing products they didn't directly profit from, Alcatel-Lucent claims.
"Microsoft takes our invention, gives them away for free and says they don't owe us anything," John Desmarais, a lawyer for Alcatel-Lucent, told the jury in rebuttal arguments on Friday.
Huff instructed the jury of the law, and began the day by dismissing a ninth juror who was ill.
Dell claims Alcatel-Lucent waited too long to sue and didn't file proper notices of infringement. Dell is also seeking US$32 million from Alcatel-Lucent in a counterclaim.
Lucent initially sued computer makers Dell and Gateway Inc. Microsoft then sued Lucent, concerned 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 also filed counterclaims that the Lucent patents aren't valid and challenging 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 US District Judge Rudi Brewster in San Diego split into five separate cases based on types of technology.
In February last year, a San Diego jury ruled in the first case to come to 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 current jury must also decide on Microsoft's contention that Alcatel-Lucent wrongly set up a trust just before the Lucent merger to hold some patents, violating an agreement to share the inventions as part of a licensing pool.
Alcatel-Lucent's American depositary receipts, each representing one ordinary share, rose US$0.03 to US$5.64 on Friday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Microsoft fell US$0.14 to US$27.91 in NASDAQ Stock Market trading. Dell rose US$0.14 to US$19.61.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique