Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know
Lucent Technologies sued Microsoft last week, alleging that its Xbox 360 infringes a 1993 Lucent patent for the “adaptive and selective coding of digital signals relating to frames and fields of video images”, according to reports.
The complaint, filed in a San Diego District Court on 28th March, seeks an injunction against further infringement and damages.
According to reports, the patent involved, USPTO Patent No 5,227,878, has already been the subject of a dispute between the two companies.
That infringement claim was dismissed in August 2005 because of a typographical mistake in the patent, but Lucent was not prohibited from re-filing the action once it had sorted out the errors. Lucent obtained a Certificate of Correction from the USPTO in October and has now filed suit again.
Speaking to CNET News.com, Lucent spokesman John Skalko explained that, “between the time of this original dismissal and our re-submission, there was another development. Microsoft issued the 360.”
Lucent believes that the MPEG-2 decoder used in the Xbox 360 infringes upon its patent, reports CNET.
Microsoft is reviewing the complaint.