Microsoft has been ordered by a U.S. court to pay a Singapore company US$388 million for patent-infringement.
In the suit, Uniloc Corporation alleged that Microsoft used its patented technology as part of the software giant's product activation methods. A federal jury in Rhode Island found that Windows XP, Office XP and Windows Server 2003 infringed on a Uniloc patent.
Uniloc's Singapore subsidiary, Unilock Pte. Ltd., holds US patent #5,490,216 for its copy protection technology.
The company claimed it showed Microsoft the code in 1993, under a pledge that Microsoft would not duplicate it. It asserted that Microsoft began to pilot programs with similar software later.
Microsoft said, however, that it developed a different system from Uniloc's.
"We are very disappointed in the jury verdict," Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said in an e-mail. "We believe that we do not infringe, that the patent is invalid and that this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported. We will ask the court to overturn the verdict."
The suit, originally filed by Uniloc in 2003, was won by Microsoft in 2006 when a judge ruled that Microsoft was using a different type of encryption technology from Uniloc's. But late last year, the case was sent back to trial by the U.S. Court of Appeals.
According to reports, the patent verdict is the second-largest in the United States this year.
Last year, Microsoft launched an antipiracy campaign it called Global Anti-Piracy Day across 49 countries in six continents, in a bid to step up its anti-piracy efforts.
Victoria Ho of ZDNet Asia reported from Singapore and CNET News' Ina Fried reported from San Francisco.
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