[Noticia] Microsoft Faces Another Patent Lawsuit

Fuente: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article...669,00.asp

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Microsoft Faces Another Patent Lawsuit
Software giant sued over autoplay feature in Windows.

Joris Evers, IDG News Service
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Microsoft faces a trial in a patent infringement suit over the
"autoplay" feature in Windows that automatically starts an application
after storage media is loaded into a PC.

Little-known TV Interactive Data (TVI) of Los Gatos, California, sued
Microsoft in May 2002, seeking damages and an injunction barring
Microsoft from further infringement. Microsoft flagged the case in its
quarterly regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange
Commission on Friday.

TVI charges Microsoft infringes on four of its U.S. patents, three
entitled "host device equipped with means for starting a process in
response to detecting insertion of a storage media" and one entitled
"method for starting up a process automatically on insertion of a
storage media into a host device." The patent numbers are 5,597,307;
5,795,156; 6,249,863; and 6,418,532.

Additionally, TVI charges that Microsoft patent 6,366,966, entitled
"method and system for automatically running a program" interferes
with the TVI patents as it covers a TVI invention, according to case
records filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District
of California.

Microsoft denies infringement and claims TVI's patents are invalid,
according to court records. This is a common response in patent
infringement cases.

A meeting to try to settle the case without a trial has been set for
February 20, according to a court document dated February 6. A trial
was set for July 12 but has been moved to September 27, according to
an order dated February 3, signed by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey
White.


Legal Woes
Microsoft is the defendant in more than 30 patent cases, but only
three are listed in Friday's filing. The others are the high-profile
case brought by Eolas Technologies and the University of California
over Internet Explorer and a case brought by InterTrust Technologies
over DRM (Digital Rights Management) and other technologies.

In the Eolas case, Microsoft has been ordered to pay damages of $520
million. The InterTrust case involves a large number of Microsoft
products and is scheduled to go to trial in 2005. A verdict for
InterTrust could adversely affect distribution of Windows or Office,
Microsoft warns in the regulatory filing.

Microsoft in its filing also details earnings at each of its seven
business segments for the three months ended December 31, 2003. With
earnings under pressure from equity compensation expenses, Microsoft
reports that only the Client and Information Worker segments posted
operating profits. The Client segment produces the Windows client
operating systems and the Information Worker unit is responsible for
Microsoft Office products.

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Ille Corvus. Hic et Nunc.

Meritorios de Filtrado (Kill-file):
jm tella llop (2003.10.25)