It's a boring week if Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) isn't being sued or is in court defending itself. In the ring this time is France's Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), which says Microsoft is infringing on its patents in its ultra-popular Outlook e-mail and messaging software. You know, the one that small businesses to megacorporations use for corporate e-mail and calendaring?
After $358 million in damages was awarded Alcatel-Lucent recently, an appeals court judge stated that the lawsuit wasn't supported by evidence. And, he wants the damages amount recalculated. Microsoft said when the original damages were awarded that the amount was way too high, and on appeals it is now being vindicated. The entire amount was based on the global market value for the Outlook product itself, and that Alcatel-Lucent's claims did not contribute to that whole amount.
For its part, Microsoft wanted to settle for a meager $6.5 million, while Alcatel-Lucent complained that "110 million units of infringing software" made the $358 million award justified. Calling the date-picker function in Microsoft Outlook a "tiny feature of one part of a much larger software program," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit stated that the judgment was just too high. Another loss for the litigious patent lawyers, eh? We'll see.
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