Downgrade Suit Dismissed and Other Legal News

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit over Windows downgrade rules, and a jury has ruled that Microsoft should pay VirnetX US$105.75 million for patent infringement. Microsoft also lost an appeal in an earlier US$290 million patent-infringement ruling and complained to European antitrust authorities about some terms and conditions for Google’s AdSense program.

Downgrade suit dismissed. A judge has dismissed a lawsuit in which a consumer alleged that Microsoft violated antitrust laws by encouraging OEMs to ship new PCs with the latest version of Windows. The suit, filed in Feb. 2009 by Emma Alvarado, claims that Lenovo charged her an extra fee to install Windows XP on her new PC in place of the newer Windows Vista. In Mar. 2010, District Judge Marsha Pechman dismissed the case, noting that Microsoft did not collect any portion of the fee charged and earned no extra revenue from downgrades. In fact, Pechman ruled, “it appears that Plaintiff obtained two versions of Microsoft’s operating software for the price of one.”