Microsoft sues Lucent in complex patent case

NEW YORK: Microsoft has filed its lawsuit on Tuesday in a San Diego, California federal court over patents encompassing an array of technologies that include audio and video coding, video displays and a touch-screen system for working on documents. On the other hand, Lucent that holds patents spawned by its Bell Laboratories research and development arm, filed patent infringement charges against Gateway last year and against Dell Computer Corp. in February this year.

Dell and Gateway, in turn, asked Microsoft to indemnify them, on the grounds that Lucent's charges appear to be targeted at technologies that come from Microsoft. "We believe that there has been no infringement and Lucent's claims are unfounded," the Journal quoted Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler as saying.

Desler said the software giant filed this week's suit to protect the two personal computer makers and "to get some clarity from the courts to prevent Lucent from continued threats on this matter."

Dell and Gateway are among Microsoft's key business allies as they sell or ship some of their PCs already loaded with Microsoft's Windows operating systems and other software suites.

According to media reports, an intellectual property licensing firm representing Lucent sent Microsoft a letter in January, listing 16 patents and seeking to persuade Microsoft to enter talks about licensing them. The firm, called ThinkFire, wrote that the patents were crucial to current and planned Microsoft products, and "impact approximately $9 billion of current Microsoft annual sales."

© Reuters