A US judge has rejected Microsoft’s plea for a new trial
in a patent infringement case and has slapped an extra $25m fine on
the software giant.
In April, Microsoft was ordered to pay $115m (£64m) to David
Colvin, the founder of Z4 Technologies, for infringing patents in
its anti-piracy software.
Computer aided design firm Autodesk was also ordered to pay $18m
(£10m), following a jury verdict against the two firms.
Colvin had taken Microsoft and Autodesk to court in 2004,
claiming his patents had been infringed in Microsoft's Office and
Windows XP and Autodesk's AutoCAD products.
The two companies’ request for a new trial has now been thrown
out by District Judge Leonard Davis.
He upheld the original $115m award against Microsoft and ordered
the software firm to pay an additional $25m in enhanced damages
plus almost $2m in legal fees. Autodesk was ordered to pay $322,000
legal fees on top of the original $18m fine.
Microsoft is expected to appeal. The company is also facing a
fresh patent dispute over its SQL Server database after software
patent firm Timeline filed a lawsuit against it earlier this
week.
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