Microsoft wins Smart Tags case
C|Net | at | by Mike
A jury ruled in Microsoft's favor late on Wednesday, deciding that a feature in recent versions of Office doesn't infringe on a patent held by another software maker.
In 2002, small Norwegian company Arendi Holdings filed a lawsuit charging Microsoft with violating its U.S. Patent 6,323,853 for a "method, system and computer readable medium for addressing handling from a computer program."
Jurors agreed with the first part of Microsoft's defense, which argued that the technology covered by the Arendi patent is fundamentally different from Smart Tags. The jury upheld the validity of the patent, however, rejecting Microsoft's argument that similar technology existed before the patent application was filed.