Lucent sues Microsoft over patent infringement in Xbox 360

Lucent sues Microsoft over patent infringement in Xbox 360

Lucent Technologies, which recently announced their plans to merge with competitor Alcatel, has sued the software giants and the maker of Xbox 360 gaming console, Microsoft. Lucent is claiming that Microsoft is breaking one of their patented technologies in the Xbox 360 gaming machine, which was launched in the market last year and is now available in more than 15 countries around the world.

This lawsuit is related to the Patent No. 5,227,878, “Adaptive Coding and Decoding of Frames and Fields of Video”. It was issued to Lucent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 1993. Lucent claims that Microsoft is using this proprietary technology in the Xbox 360’s built-in MPEG-2 decoding capability.

This is however not the first time that the two companies are fighting legal battles over this patent. In a lawsuit filed in 2003, Microsoft sued Lucent in an effort to seek a judgment of non-infringement. Interestingly, they were successful on the basis of a typographical error in the patent.

Lucent added that before filing the lawsuit they had notified Microsoft of what it believes is “willful’ infringement of its patent. They are seeking unspecified damages from Microsoft and are requesting a jury trial to resolve the suit.