Lucent sues Microsoft over game console technology

NEW YORK - Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it was reviewing a lawsuit filed against it by Lucent Technologies Inc. alleging Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console contains technology that infringes on a Lucent patent.

Lucent filed the suit in the U.S. District Court in San Diego on March 28, and asked for injunctive relief and unspecified damages, Lucent spokesman John Skalko said.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft did not provide additional details in an e-mailed comment.

In 2003, Lucent sued Microsoft's hardware partners Gateway Inc. and Dell Inc., accusing them of infringing on three patents. The suit did not seek damages from Microsoft.

The computer makers asked Microsoft to shield them from Lucent's claims since the technologies in question were built into Microsoft's products. In response, Microsoft filed a declaratory judgment complaint in San Diego.

In August 2005, Judge Rudy Brewster threw out part of Lucent's complaint because the patent at issue contained a typographical error. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a certificate of correction for the patent in October, which allowed Lucent to sue Microsoft last week.

The name of the patent is "Adaptive Coding and Decoding of Frames and Fields of Video."

Lucent now says Microsoft is infringing on the patent through the Xbox 360, which the company released in November.

Lucent shares closed up 13 cents at $3.17 on the New York Stock Exchange. Microsoft shares closed up 10 cents at $27.74 on the Nasdaq.