Microsoft News Tracker

Bill Snyder at TheStreet.com has the blow-by-blow account:

Score one for Microsoft in its long-running legal feud with Alcatel-Lucent.

A U.S. court has ruled that neither Dell, Gateway nor Microsoft had infringed on two patents held by Alcatel-Lucent during the development of Dell’s Axim handheld computer.

But the round is not over and neither is the bout.

Two other patents in the same case are still at issue.

The judgment is just one part of a very complex patent infringement case brought by Alcatel-Lucent against PC makers who use Microsoft’s software in a variety of devices. Although it was not a direct target of the suit, Microsoft joined the hardware makers because its software is central to the case and would likely have been sued at a later day, in any case.

Fifteen patents were initially at issue, and because the case is so complex, the judge divided it into six separate trials.

If you’re keeping score, Microsoft lost big in the first round, but came back strong to win the second.