Microsoft Hit With $242 Million Verdict in Cortana Patent Lawsuit

Microsoft should pay patent proprietor IPA Applied sciences $242 million, a federal jury in Delaware stated on Friday after figuring out that Microsoft’s Cortana virtual-assistant software program infringed an IPA patent.

The jury agreed with IPA after a week-long trial that Microsoft’s voice-recognition know-how violates IPA’s patent rights in computer-communications software program.

IPA is a subsidiary of patent-licensing firm Wi-LAN, which is collectively owned by Canadian know-how firm Quarterhill and two funding companies. It purchased the patent and others from SRI Worldwide’s Siri Inc, which Apple acquired in 2010 and whose know-how it utilized in its Siri digital assistant.

“We stay assured that Microsoft by no means infringed on IPA’s patents and can attraction,” a Microsoft spokesperson stated.

Representatives for IPA and Wi-LAN didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the decision.

IPA filed the lawsuit in 2018, accusing Microsoft of infringing patents associated to non-public digital assistants and voice-based information navigation.

The case was later narrowed to concern one IPA patent. Microsoft argued that it doesn’t infringe and that the patent is invalid.

IPA has additionally sued Google and Amazon over its patents. Amazon defeated IPA’s lawsuit in 2021, and the Google case continues to be ongoing.

© Thomson Reuters 2024