A week after Microsoft was ordered to hand over $1.5 billion in an Alcatel-Lucent MP3 patent dispute, a federal judge has ruled that the Windows maker did not violate a patent at the heart of a second trial that was set to begin soon.
The ruling from the bench by U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster in San Diego late Thursday relates to an Alcatel-Lucent patent covering speech coding technology, the companies said. The judge dismissed all of Alcatel-Lucent's claims, which means a jury trial set to begin March 19 will not proceed, Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said.
Alcatel-Lucent plans to appeal the ruling and is "comfortable with our chances of success as the case makes its way through the legal system," spokeswoman Joan Campion said Friday.
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