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.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
RSS