Microsoft News Tracker

A US Federal Court judge today reversed the whopping $1.5 billion judgement against Microsoft that a jury handed down in a Alcatel-Lucent patent lawsuit case last February:

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, won a reversal of a jury’s record $1.52 billion verdict in a landmark case over Alcatel-Lucent’s MP3 digital- music patents.

U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster in San Diego said today that the jury’s damage award couldn’t stand because one of the two patents wasn’t infringed. The second disputed patent was co- owned by a German research institute and Microsoft might have had a valid license, Brewster said.

…

“The jury’s verdict was against the clear weight of the evidence,” Brewster wrote in his 43-page order.

More of the details of the judge’s decision by following the link, but yes, this can be appealed too.