Microsoft takes $1.52 billion hit in MP3 technology

According to Reuters, a U.S. federal jury found that Microsoft Corp. infringed audio patents held by Alcatel-Lucent and should pay $1.52 billion in damages.
Microsoft said it plans to first ask the trial judge to knock down the ruling and will appeal if necessary. Microsoft said the verdict is unsupported by the law and that it had already licensed the technology in question from Germany's Fraunhofer.
Alcatel-Lucent had accused the world's biggest software maker of infringing patents related to standards used for playing MP3 digital music files.