Microsoft dealt AUD$545 million blow in anti-piracy patent case

Stan Beer
Thursday, 09 April 2009 11:22

Business IT - Technology

In one of the biggest damages awards for software patent infringement in history, the world's largest software company Microsoft has been hit with a US$388 million fine. However, Microsoft is not expected to take the decision laying down.

Irvine, California-based Uniloc holds a patent for anti-piracy software which is able to identify physical hardware by a device's "unique fingerprints".

Uniloc alleges that Microsoft infringes its anti-piracy software patent during its product activation process.

The Redmond software giant may have thought that it had put the matter to rest last year when on 7 August 2008 a US District Court dismissed the Uniloc patent infringement suit lodged in 2003.

However, Uniloc and its representative law firm Mintz Levin claimed a "major victory" later in the same month when the Federal Circuit reversed the judgment and ordered the matter back to the District Court for trial.

The Federal Circuit concluded that the District Court made a mistake in its judgment by failing to take into account Microsoft’s admission that the same algorithms at issue were used in its product activation system.

This time in a trial by jury, Microsoft was found to have "wilfully" infringed on the Uniloc patent and was ordered to pay more than the original damages claim.

Microsoft reportedly does not intend to accept the verdict and will lodge an appeal, claiming that the patent is invalid.