An interesting end to what looked like a losing battle for Microsoft.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6934363.stmA US district court has overturned a decision ordering Microsoft to pay phone firm Alcatel-Lucent $1.52bn (£777m) for infringing music patents.
The federal judge in San Diego reversed a jury's decision which had ruled that Microsoft's Media Player software infringed on two Alcatel patents.
Both patents regarded how audio was converted into MP3 files.
Alcatel said it would appeal against the decision while Microsoft said the reversal was a "victory for consumers".
This is good news for many more organisations than Microsoft, many smaller companies had though that if the bigger companies where fined heavily then they could be forced into payment or in some cases close down, luckily this has proved not to be the case with Microsoft relying on its agreement with Fraunhofer and the simple logic of why hadnt Alcatel sued Fraunhofer if it believed they where licencing the format illegaly. This simple strategy seems to have worked.
