Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software maker, and Dell Inc owe more than US$2.45 billion to Alcatel-Lucent SA for infringing its patented computer technology, a witness for Lucent told jurors.
Microsoft should pay US$1.99 billion for violating four patents with products such as its Windows Media Player, Vista computer operating system and Xbox 360 game console, damages expert Wayne Hoeberlein said yesterday in a trial in federal court in San Diego. Dell should pay US$465.6 million, said Hoeberlein, of UHY Advisors Tax & Business Consultants.
"These are big numbers, but they are based on the sales of millions of systems," Hoeberlein told the panel of eight women and one man.
Alcatel-Lucent, the world's biggest maker of telecommunications equipment, is seeking the biggest patent infringement verdict in US history.
The Paris-based company claims infringement of patents covering the MPEG-2 form of digital video, computer form-entry technology and the use of a stylus on handheld devices. Hoeberlein testified as a damages expert on the company's behalf.
The patent-infringement trial is the second round of cases by Alcatel-Lucent against Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft and Round Rock, Texas-based Dell. In the first trial, held last year, a San Diego jury awarded Alcatel-Lucent US$1.52 billion in a dispute over the MP3 computer audio standard, the highest-ever verdict in a patent trial. A judge later threw out the award.
Microsoft and Dell contend they didn't violate the patents.
"We continue to believe that the patents are invalid and not infringed and that Lucent is not entitled to any damages," Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said in an e-mail. "We look forward to putting on our case."
Jess Blackburn, a spokesman for Dell, said the company doesn't comment on ongoing litigation.
One of the disputed patents, covering technology used to play DVDs, digital TV and computer games, is owned by a trust that Lucent Technologies Inc formed before it merged with Alcatel SA last year.
Lucent Technologies was launched in 1996 when AT&T spun off its Bell Labs unit. Alcatel-Lucent was created in 2006 through Alcatel SA's acquisition of Lucent.
Microsoft and Dell are pursuing claims that Alcatel-Lucent wrongly set up a trust just before the merger to hold some patents, violating an agreement to share the inventions as part of a patent-licensing pool.
The trial before US District Judge Marilyn Huff is expected to last into next month, with more than 100 potential witnesses listed in court papers. The case is the latest chapter in a six-year dispute that began when Lucent accused Dell in 2002 of using its patented inventions and demanded royalties.
Microsoft was drawn into the case because it may have to reimburse Dell, which uses Microsoft's Windows operating system in the computers it sells. Microsoft countersued, claiming the Lucent patents aren't valid and challenging other patents held by the company as well.
The Gateway unit of Taipei, Taiwan-based Acer Inc was a defendant in the case before settling on Feb. 14. Terms of the accord weren't disclosed. Alcatel-Lucent had sought more than US$300 million in damages from the computer maker.
An index launched a year ago to give investors greater exposure to China’s Internet giants is now the world’s worst-performing major technology gauge. The Hang Seng Tech Index has been on a roller-coaster ride in the past 12 months. The gauge, which marks its first anniversary on Tuesday, was up 59 percent at its February peak, but has since seen more than US$551 billion in market value wiped out amid Beijing’s clampdown on the sector. That has reduced its gain to nearly 6 percent, compared with more than 40 percent for the MSCI World Information Technology Index and the NASDAQ-100 Index. The
EDUCATION AS WELFARE: New regulations threaten to upend the lucrative private education sector that teaches the public school curriculum to paying families China unveiled a sweeping overhaul of its US$100 billion education tech sector, banning companies that teach the school curriculum from earning profit, raising capital or going public. Beijing on Saturday published an array of regulations that together threaten to overturn the sector and jeopardize billions of dollars in foreign investment. Companies that teach school subjects can no longer accept overseas investment, which could include capital from the offshore registered entities of Chinese firms, according to a notice released by the Chinese State Council. Those in violation of that rule must take steps to rectify the situation, the country’s most powerful administrative
‘IN ITS INFANCY’: The company’s 12-inch fab in Arizona is to be its first major overseas chip manufacturing site, while the fab in Japan would be its second, if it is constructed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating the feasibility of constructing a semiconductor fabrication plant in Germany as it continues to expand overseas, it said yesterday. A shareholder at the contract chipmaker’s annual general meeting in Hsinchu City yesterday asked about the possibility following media reports earlier this month that TSMC was approached by the German government about building a chip fab in the country, as Europe joins the US and China in establishing local chip supplies in a bid to avert future chip shortages. “About the German fab, we are seriously looking into it, but it is still in its
The next target for China’s cybersecurity crackdown is to be the pools of data collected by the latest generation of vehicles. This approach risks Beijing shooting itself in the foot, and jeopardizing its ambitious plans to lead the global race for electric and autonomous vehicles. China wants to have control over the information vehicles have about their drivers, the roads they traverse, and the faces and voices they pass, according to a draft law on data-security management for the automotive industry issued in May. It seeks to ensure manufacturers across the auto supply chain keep data in the country and pass
RSS