微软达成和解.com诉讼

破裂.com对微软的诉讼, 该公司在2002年提交了哪些文件, 以庭外和解悄悄结束了吗. Minutes before a scheduled federal court hearing on March 10, Microsoft agreed to pay 破裂 a licensing fee of $60 million; for the sum, 破裂 agreed to drop all further litigation against Microsoft on the matter of stolen trade secrets.

The settlement amount has met with mixed reactions, especially from those investors who have watched the lawsuit play out. The market reacted swiftly, sending 破裂's shares down more than 50%, to $1.54, as of noon Eastern the business day following the announcement. 一位投资者在Slashdot上发帖.org 董事会 3月12日，以mapmaker的名义, 毫不奇怪, Microsoft settled 1/2 hour before that hearing was to start. 令人惊讶的是, 不幸的是，像我这样的BRST股东, 他们支付的和解费用微不足道." The expectation of a higher amount had been fueled by recent 文章, especially 一个 在PBS.org专家Robert X. Cringley, who predicted that Microsoft's refusal to settle could yield a courtroom judgment in the billion-dollar range.

The case had enough intrigue to keep the attention of legal and technical buffs alike:
•一个“大卫vs歌利亚”的故事爆发了.com公司.--a small company claiming it had revealed trade secrets comprised of 37 patents--against a mega-corporation that at first expressed interest in those secrets, 然后选择不买许可证. 晚些时候, the smaller company claimed its technology had been built into the mega-corporation's flagship media product (Windows Media Player 9).
•一家小公司, 百家乐软件非常有限, hanging on to solvency in the hope that it would prevail despite the lengthy due process period.
• Well-known initial investors, such as the rock group U2.
• A series of "missing" Microsoft 电子邮件s that spanned the exact time that 破裂 claimed it was providing the trade secrets to Microsoft (and which, 一些文章声称, would lead to impoundment of Microsoft's 电子邮件 servers if the March 10 court hearing had proceeded)

专利侵权诉讼评析, 理查德Lappenbusch, 微软战略规划总监, 声明于2003年底 电子邮件: "We evaluated 破裂's proposal like we would any other—carefully, 根据适当的协议, 并遵循非常保守的商业惯例. 大家可以想象, we never want to be in a position to even appear to have misappropriated some一个 else's technology. 在这种情况下, we determined that their offer for their technology and for their IP was not something we wanted to accept, 所以我们拒绝了."

他接着补充道, "We look forward to presenting to the Court the real facts in this matter—Microsoft has innovated with digital media and networking technologies in Windows for more than 10 years. The fast streaming technology in Microsoft's Windows Media 9 series is an example of work by Microsoft to deliver an even more compelling streaming media experience to users. 破裂's claims are without merit and the technology at issue in this court proceeding 是基于微软自己的工作和创新."

微软官方 新闻稿 noting the settlement used the phrase "allows us to continue," which is especially curious given Lappenbusch's comments that the "technology at issue . . . 是基于微软自己的工作和创新.这份新闻稿引用了Tom Burt的话, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Microsoft, 说, "While we were confident of prevailing in this lawsuit, we have been open from the beginning to finding a reasonable way to resolve this case. Securing a license to the 破裂 patent portfolio through this settlement allows us to focus on the continued development and deployment of Windows Media technologies to deliver the ultimate media experience to our partners and customers."

破裂 Co-founder and CEO Richard Lang seems happy with the outcome. "We spent over a decade developing and patenting the technology in anticipation of the markets that are now emerging,他说. "Microsoft taking a license validates the innovation of the burst technology embodied in the underlying patent portfolio. With this action behind us, the company can now focus on its other opportunities."

Cringley's recent article may shed a bit of light on what those "other opportunities" will be. 在他1月7日的专栏中, Cringley noted that a court win would provide 破裂 the precedent to approach other media player companies, 包括苹果和Real, 浏览授权协议.

缺乏法庭裁决, 然而, leaves the patent and "prior art" question in limbo, especially the "prior art" argument that Microsoft planned to use and Apple will likely use; Charles Wiltgen, formerly with Apple’s QuickTime group and now the host of playbacktime.com, 笔记 that Apple already possessed a similar technology before 破裂's patents were granted. 苹果的问题将尤其棘手, given the fact that U2’s Bono is friends with Steve Jobs and U2 has appeared in recent iPod commercials.