Microsoft has settled the patent infringement lawsuit filed by PalTalk for an undisclosed amount of money. Few days back PalTalk holdings had filed a lawsuit against Microsoft challenging that Microsoft’s best-selling game Halo and Xbox infringe the company’s patent related to “controlling interactive applications over multiple computers.” PalTalk sued Microsoft demanding $90 million in royalties on Xbox. PalTalk’s suit was related to multiplayer technology used by Microsoft to link players on multiple computers. Microsoft denied having infringed any patent and said that their technique is quite different. They also challenged PalTalk’s claim of $90 million as PalTalk had bought patent from MPath for less than $200,000. MPath is the company behind VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), video conferencing service HearMe (used by PalTalk) and MPlayer PC gaming service (which was bought by GameSpy in 2000 and added to GameSpy Arcade in 2001).
PalTalk’s $90 million claim relied on the royalties on Xbox and company’s best-selling game Halo, both of which combined have earned billions of dollars for Microsoft. By the way, Microsoft has described the settlement as an “amicable agreement.” And that would surely mean the company got off easier than you’d have expected.
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Via: gamasutra
MS sucks