Court rules against Acacia in Microsoft patent case
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Texas court ruled on Thursday that Microsoft Corp did not infringe on patents claimed by Computer Acceleration Corp, a subsidiary of patent warehousing firm Acacia Research Corp.
After a seven-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the jury ruled that Computer Acceleration's patent was invalid. The patent in question involved a technology that helps computers boot up faster and speed up the launch of programs, according to Microsoft.
In the suit, Acacia was seeking $2.50 per Windows XP license sold in the U.S. for a total sum of between $600 million to $900 million.
Shares of Acacia fell 25 percent to $12.90 in extended trade from its Thursday Nasdaq close of $17.15.
Microsoft said the original lawsuit alleged that Microsoft operating systems, Windows XP and Windows Vista, violated the patent but the court dismissed the charges against Vista on procedural grounds.
(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando and Daisuke Wakabayashi in Seattle; Editing by Carol Bishopric)
