April 24, 2006
Last Wednesday, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas awarded $133 million in damages to z4 Technologies after finding that Microsoft Corp. and Autodesk Inc. infringed two of z4 patents (U.S. Patent No. 6,044,471, "Method and apparatus for securing software to reduce unauthorized use," and U.S. Patent No. 6,785,825, "Method for securing software to decrease software piracy"). These two patents, issued in 2000 and 2004, respectively, claim software security technologies that a jury found to be practiced within Microsoft's Office product and Autodesk's AutoCAD product. This six day trial resulted in a verdict against Microsoft and Autodesk for $115 million and $18 million, respectively. This is the second verdict in a week out of the Eastern District of Texas in favor of the plaintiffs in a patent infringement lawsuit (see the TiVo/EchoStar story below).
U.S. Patent No. 6,044,471: LINK
U.S. Patent No. 6,785,825: LINK
Reuters News Story (on ZDNet): LINK
z4 Technologies Website: LINK
U.S. Patent No. 6,044,471: LINK
U.S. Patent No. 6,785,825: LINK
Reuters News Story (on ZDNet): LINK
z4 Technologies Website: LINK
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