Microsoft Ordered to Pay $388m in Patent Case

New York: A federal jury has ordered US software giant Microsoft to pay 388 million dollars to Uniloc for infringing on an anti-piracy software patent held by the Singapore — and US-based company.

The award was made by a jury hearing the case in a district court in the US state of Rhode Island, yesterday.

The jury ordered Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft to compensate Uniloc, which has its US headquarters in Irvine, California, for infringing on a patent for a security algorithm held by Uniloc.

The complaint against Microsoft was filed by Uniloc Singapore Private Ltd and Uniloc USA Inc in October 2003.

Uniloc had accused Microsoft of infringing on its patent in its Windows operating systems, which power most of the world’s personal computers, and in Office programs.

Microsoft said it would seek to have the verdict overturned.

“We are very disappointed in the jury verdict,” said David Bowermaster, a Microsoft spokesman.

“We believe that we do not infringe, that the patent is invalid and that this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported,” he said. “We will ask the court to overturn the verdict.”

Microsoft had previously won the case but Uniloc convinced an appeals court to overturn the judge’s ruling, arguing that the case was influenced by the testimony of an expert witness who had conflicts of interest.