Burst Settles, EU and DoJ Investigate

Digital media technology company Burst.com and Microsoft have reached a settlement in their antitrust and patent infringement case. The deal leaves RealNetworks as the only private company currently pursuing antitrust claims against Microsoft. In other antitrust news, European Union (EU) authorities ordered Microsoft to change the name of a version of Windows that does not include the Windows Media Player and expressed concern that its protocol-licensing program was too restrictive and expensive but allowed its partial acquisition of a digital rights management (DRM) company to go through. Also, U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) antitrust officials met with Microsoft to discuss the next version of Windows (co e-named Longhorn).

Burst Settles

On Mar. 14, 2005, Microsoft announced it had paid Burst.com US$60 million and acquired a nonexclusive license (without sublicense rights) for Burst’s patent portfolio. In exchange, Burst has dropped all legal claims against Microsoft.

Founded in 1990 as Instant Video Technologies, Burst sued Microsoft in June 2002, alleging that Microsoft had improperly incorporated Burst’s techniques for delivering digital video streams over IP networks, including the Internet. Burst.com claims it showed Microsoft patented technology in 1999 as part of an effort to enter a licensing deal. Then, according to Burst.com, Microsoft incorporated similar technology into Windows Media Services 9 Series (originally code-named Corona), the streaming media server that shipped as a component of Windows Server 2003.