Microsoft ordered to pay $242m in Cortana patent lawsuit verdict
Company intends to appeal
A federal jury in Delaware ruled on Friday that Microsoft must pay $242 million to IPA Technologies for patent infringement related to its Cortana virtual assistant software.
The week-long trial concluded with the jury siding with IPA, finding that Microsoft's voice recognition technology violated a specific patent held by IPA concerning computer-communication software.
"The jury having deliberated on the claims and defenses asserted at trial, and the jury having reached a verdict (D.I. 370), judgment of infringement and no invalidity of claims 50, 53, and 54 of U.S. Patent No. 7,069,560 is hereby entered for IPA Technologies Inc. and against Microsoft Corporation in the amount of $242,000,000.00 ," the jury wrote in the verdict [pdf].
IPA, a subsidiary of Wi-LAN, a patent licensing company, had originally acquired the patent from SRI International's Siri Inc.
The lawsuit, filed by IPA in 2018, initially accused Microsoft of infringing on multiple patents related to personal digital assistants and voice-based data navigation. The case was eventually narrowed down to focus on a single IPA patent.
Microsoft argued throughout the trial that their technology did not infringe on the patent and that the patent itself was invalid. However, the jury ruled that Microsoft had violated the patent.
"We remain confident that Microsoft never infringed on IPA's patents and will appeal," a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters.
The saga began with SRI International - a non-profit research institute affiliated with Stanford University.
SRI developed its speech recognition technology and later spun off a company called Siri to commercialise it. Crucially, SRI granted Siri a non-exclusive licence to its patents.
Apple, recognising the potential, acquired Siri in 2010, gaining access to the patents in the process. But in 2016, Canadian firm IPA Technologies seized an opportunity and purchased the patents directly from SRI in 2016.
Within a short span, IPA commenced an aggressive legal campaign, suing several tech companies for patent infringement. The initial lawsuits in October 2016 targeted Acer, Dell, HP, Toshiba and Asus, resulting in swift settlements.
Subsequently, IPA turned its sights towards Amazon, aiming to exert control over its digital assistant, Alexa.
Amazon opted to contest the claims.
Concurrently, IPA pursued legal action against other tech giants including Google (for Google Assistant), Microsoft (for Cortana), as well as HTC, Sony, Dish, and several others.
Amazon emerged victorious in a lawsuit filed by IPA in 2021.
The case against Google is still ongoing.