More than a slap on the wrist
Reuters reports that Microsoft has been ordered to pay anti-piracy software company Uniloc $388 million in damages by a federal court after coming second in a long-running patent infringement case.
Uniloc makes a piece of software that is designed to prevent the creation of duplicate, i.e. pirate, copies of software. It had been alleged that Microsoft used technology patented by Uniloc in its product activation system.
It looks like the case had been about to be concluded in Microsoft's favour last year, until the appeals court overturned a judgment that Microsoft had not infringed on Uniloc's copyright. That permitted the case to continue.
And it's not over yet. Microsoft has announced its intention to appeal, so Uniloc shouldn't be too quick to start spending that money.
