back-words... now hear this, or, say what? - part 2

Sunday, March 4, 2007
now hear this, or, say what? - part 2
believe it or not, a "conclusion" to last week's case has finally arrived and as anticipated, an appeal will be made. of course, regardless who came out on top in this ruling, an appeal was going to be made because thats just how bad corporate bureaucracy gets...

frankly, i dont care about the point, itself, or their debate. all they, the corporations, care about is money. thats not the bottom line for me, a consumer of mp3 technology. i am concerned about how this will affect the user, because you know thats where all those dollar signs eventually come from- the little guy. this little guy is against potential price increases and fees for products and services utilizing mp3 technology.

i also fear this could increase the already rising rate of piracy, resulting in increased product/service rates in compensation for loss due to piracy. that makes a difficult and tempting decision for those trying to play by the rules. money is so overrated- lets go back to beads...


Judge rules for Microsoft in Alcatel-Lucent suit

Fri Mar 2, 2:21 PM ET

A U.S. federal judge dismissed Alcatel-Lucent's (ALU.PA)(NYSE:ALU - news) patent claim against Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) over technology that converts speech into text, the two companies said on Friday.

The ruling made late Thursday comes one week after a jury found that the world's largest software maker infringed on audio patents held by Alcatel-Lucent and ordered the company to pay $1.52 billion in damages.

U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster in San Diego dismissed all of Alcatel-Lucent's claims in a summary judgment, meaning that the jury trial set to begin on March 19 will not take place. Alcatel-Lucent said it plans to appeal the ruling.

"We've made strong arguments supporting our view," said Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Joan Campion. "We're comfortable with our chances of success."

Microsoft and Alcatel-Lucent are locked in a number of patent disputes including a suit over the video-coding technology in Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console.

"This ruling reaffirms our confidence that once there's judicial review of these complex patent cases, these Alcatel-Lucent claims ultimately won't stand up," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's deputy general counsel.

Last week's $1.52 billion award for Alcatel-Lucent was the largest ever in a U.S. patent case. The award is expected to fuel a push by computer and software makers to overhaul the U.S. patent system.

Microsoft has said it plans to ask a judge to knock down the award and will appeal if necessary.