Lawyer: Xbox violated patent

Microsoft Corp. violated a patent to produce its Xbox video game player, a lawyer for Alcatel-Lucent SA told a federal jury.

"Their customers demanded it, so they put it in their products," said John Desmarais, an attorney for a patent trust that lists Alcatel-Lucent as a 99 percent beneficiary. "They make billions of dollars in profits on the products that are made with our technology."

Opening statements began in U.S. District Court today in San Diego in the third of a five-trial series between Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft. Alcatel-Lucent may seek hundreds of millions of dollars on its claim that Microsoft's Xbox console and DVD player infringes a 1993 patent for coding video frames.

Microsoft has stayed mostly on the defensive for the first two trials, though it's now accusing Alcatel-Lucent affiliates of infringing its patents related to messaging systems. In the first two trials, jurors have sided with Alcatel-Lucent.

[Zhuk]

Another frivolous lawsuit by yet another company jealous of Microsoft's success and innovative drive, these vultures are the ones who should be put on trial

[thereapersson]

Love the comedy, Zhuk! ;-)

[GameDev]

of getting the whacked with the sue hammer, your comments look a little silly.

[juuken]

Lmao.
I had to laugh at that. I give them credit for Windows, but other than that, they're a bunch of greedy bastards.

[InYourMorn]

kamelot

[gamesR4fun]

By WILLIAM MCQUILLEN AND BILL CALLAHAN
BLOOMBERG NEWS

What gets me tho is how they say their media players free its a major selling point on their product. Well no doubt they'll stall the counter suit for as long as possible...

[yesah]

The funniest thing is that it was a patent from 1993.

[gamesR4fun]

"Spam: (35 minutes ago)
lawsuits? who cares.
Reported by: n4user1 "

say what now how many accounts you on anyways and does ms at least pay you minimum wage?

[v1c1ous]

xbox 1 technology or xbox 360?

[lelik]

awesome.

[Britjadg]

in two minds about the moralistic side of this. i can understand Alcatel-Lucents frustration, but as the article quite rightly points out - a lot of the technoclogy stems from Windows media player.

1.75 billion dollars? guess MS wont be buying much exclusive dlc for a while!

[jcfilth]

Great News!!!

[jcfilth]

is it right to feel good when seeing bad news about M$?

[nix]

LOL.. beats me dude.. q:

[SL1M DADDY]

Who'd a thunk it?

[darkdoom3000]

Random-0 indeed.

[Citizen Cook]

... They need to start making their OWN consoles. IN house. Instead of farming them out and using other peoples tech. Go the SOny route and make them yourselves in your own factories. That way, YOU control the quality. An initial outlay (one M$ can easily afford) but LONGTERM, they WILL make Money...

HA HA HA HA!

[juuken]

They really like copying, don't they? That's why their 360 has so many problems now.

[ben hates you]

people will sue you if you coff on them if just for 100$, the world sucks

[iceman2885]

This isn't somebody coughing on someone and then suing them. The process to get a patent is a long and expensive process. If big companies are gonna be allowed to just take stuff that someone has patented without paying for it we might as well just get rid of the patent system in general and completely destroy independant inventors who don't work for big companies. I don't know the specifics of this case, but if microsoft is using stuff from their patent, I'm pretty sure they deserve a piece of the pie as that is the entire purpose of the patent system, to protect intellectual property.

[KatanaSteel]

not the world. suing is something the americans are very fond of.

[harpua]

MS = joke

[misterssippi]

Alcatel-Lucent is just out to make a buck. They want in to the cash cow video game world and this is their best bet in. There are hundreds of patents on the same coding and hundreds of companies using it, but i see they only chose to sue Microsoft.....they aren't talking about the 360, its the original xbox. and MIcrosoft is correct, the technology is very primitive and can be used by anyone and this patent is like swiss cheese, so many holes. its like me writing a letter saying 'i own the world' and then in ten years suing all the rich people on it.

[Britjadg]

bad analogy, but point is sound

[iceman2885]

I don't know the specifics on this exact case, but if the patent is really "like swiss cheese" as you say it is, then Microsoft should be fine. There is a lot of patent case law that shows that early basic technology that starts it's own technological field doesn't hold up well whenever it turns out 10 years down the road that the technilogical field the basic patent started is actually a very deep and complex (if you want to learn more what I'm referring to you can check out the patent history on lasers). If it's like you say, then microsoft should have no worries other than the jury siding with the prosecution out of sympathy because they feel "big bad microsoft" can afford it.

[juuken]

M$, you never fail to amuse me.