Microsoft will pay $ 106 million for infringement of a patent for VPN
A Texas court again offended the world's largest IT corporation. Recently, Texas banned the sale of MS Word, and now sided with VirnetX in a case worth $ 105.75 million. Microsoft will pay that amount as a penalty for violating a patent for VPN (virtual private network) technology.
VirnetX claims that Microsoft Office Communicator includes technology that infringes patent number 6,502,135 , and Windows Meeting Space violates patent number 7,188,180 . The court recognized the plaintiff’s correctness on both counts (a fine of $ 71.75 million on the first patent and $ 34 million on the second).
Interestingly, the company VirnetX was founded in 2005, and bought out the relevant patents in 2006. At the same time, the inventors of the technology Edmund Munger (Edmund "Gif" Munger), Bob Short (Bob Short) and others were included in the company's staff. The staff of the company is only 12 people - the inventors and lawyers themselves. Obviously, all this was done specifically to file a lawsuit against Microsoft. Perhaps the company can be called a patent troll, especially since they put the proceeds from this fine into their business plan as early as September last year.
The trial was quick: the hearings began on March 8 and were already completed. Obviously, the arguments of the plaintiff were very convincing. According to eyewitnesses, the key evidence in court was the testimony of the inventors Edmund Manger and Bob Short.
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This is the largest fine imposed on Microsoft since the loss of $ 300 million in a patent infringement lawsuit from i4i Inc. last year.
According to Microsoft experts, this business can have a noticeable impact on the entire IT industry. A logical continuation will be license agreements or lawsuits against other companies using VPNs, including Cisco, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, AT & T, Juniper, Qualcomm, NEC and Verizon
However, the verdict of the Texas court will still be appealed to a higher court. Prior to this, there will be an additional court hearing at which they will decide which Microsoft products should be temporarily withdrawn from sale. In general, a lot more news on this topic is expected in the next few months.
via The Microsoft Blog
VirnetX claims that Microsoft Office Communicator includes technology that infringes patent number 6,502,135 , and Windows Meeting Space violates patent number 7,188,180 . The court recognized the plaintiff’s correctness on both counts (a fine of $ 71.75 million on the first patent and $ 34 million on the second).
Interestingly, the company VirnetX was founded in 2005, and bought out the relevant patents in 2006. At the same time, the inventors of the technology Edmund Munger (Edmund "Gif" Munger), Bob Short (Bob Short) and others were included in the company's staff. The staff of the company is only 12 people - the inventors and lawyers themselves. Obviously, all this was done specifically to file a lawsuit against Microsoft. Perhaps the company can be called a patent troll, especially since they put the proceeds from this fine into their business plan as early as September last year.
The trial was quick: the hearings began on March 8 and were already completed. Obviously, the arguments of the plaintiff were very convincing. According to eyewitnesses, the key evidence in court was the testimony of the inventors Edmund Manger and Bob Short.
')
This is the largest fine imposed on Microsoft since the loss of $ 300 million in a patent infringement lawsuit from i4i Inc. last year.
According to Microsoft experts, this business can have a noticeable impact on the entire IT industry. A logical continuation will be license agreements or lawsuits against other companies using VPNs, including Cisco, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, AT & T, Juniper, Qualcomm, NEC and Verizon
However, the verdict of the Texas court will still be appealed to a higher court. Prior to this, there will be an additional court hearing at which they will decide which Microsoft products should be temporarily withdrawn from sale. In general, a lot more news on this topic is expected in the next few months.
via The Microsoft Blog
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/284498/
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