Microsoft Fined $242 Million in Patent Infringement Case Loss

A federal jury has ordered Microsoft to pay $242 million in damages in a patent infringement lawsuit related to Cortana voice recognition technologies. Microsoft says it will appeal the ruling.

“The jury having deliberated on the claims and defenses asserted at trial, and the jury having reached a verdict, judgment of infringement, and no invalidity of claims is hereby entered for IPA Technologies and against Microsoft Corporation in the amount of $242 million,” Judge Richard Andrews writes in a court order.

Florian Mueller summarizes the case nicely at ip fray, noting that IPA Technologies sued Microsoft in early 2018 for violating six patents it owns related to various personal digital assistant technologies that were initially obtained in 1999. It’s a long and convoluted story, but these patents changed hands several times, the technologies were used in the creation of Siri, which was later acquired by Apple, and though Microsoft was able to have parts of the complaint thrown out over time, one infringement, tied to a patent for voice recognition technologies, was upheld a federal appeals court in 2022. And that diminished case just went to trial.

The jury took five days to find unanimously Microsoft guilty of patent infringement. The $242 million in damages is a fine that covers the costs of licensing the technologies in question.

Mueller says he can’t predict whether Microsoft’s appeal will succeed, but he notes that IPA Technologies could cross-appeal if it does. So this case might be sticking around for a few more years.