Blake Britten
(Reuters) – Microsoft (NASDAQ:) must pay patent owner IPA Technologies $242 million, a federal jury in Delaware said on Friday after finding that Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant software infringes an IPA patent.
After a week-long trial, the jury agreed with the IPA that Microsoft’s voice recognition technology infringed the IPA’s computer communications software patent rights.
IPA is a subsidiary of the Wi-LAN patent and licensing company, which is jointly owned by Canadian technology company Quarterhill (OTC:) and two investment firms. It bought the patent and other patents from Siri Inc, owned by SRI International, which Apple (NASDAQ:) acquired in 2010 and whose technology it used in its virtual assistant Siri.
“We remain confident that Microsoft never infringed the IPA patents and will appeal,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.
Representatives for IPA and Wi-LAN did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the verdict.
The IPA filed the lawsuit in 2018, accusing Microsoft of infringing patents related to personal digital assistants and voice-based data navigation.
The case was later narrowed down to a single IPA patent. Microsoft argued that it was not infringing and that the patent was invalid.
The IPA has also sued Google (NASDAQ:) and Amazon (NASDAQ:) over its patents. Amazon dismissed the IPA lawsuit in 2021, and Google’s case is still ongoing.