Microsoft has settled a patent infringement and antitrust suit from Burst.com, agreeing to pay the streaming audio and video software maker $60 million to license Burst.com’s streaming technology, in a deal reached March 10.
“We spent over a decade developing and patenting Burst technology in anticipation of the markets that are now emerging,” said Burst.com chief executive Richard Burt in a statement. “With this action behind us, the company will now focus on its other important opportunities. We would like to thank the many supporters and contributors who helped us make it to this exciting juncture.”
The settlement was reached hours before a court hearing in Baltimore on the litigation was to take place.
Burst sued Microsoft in 2002, claiming the Redmond, Washington software emperors infringed Burst’s patent for sending audio and video over the Web. The settlement includes Microsoft licensing Burst’s patent portfolio and focus on continued development and deployment of Windows Media, as Microsoft deputy general counsel Tom Burt said in a statement.
Burst had sued Microsoft over claims that Microsoft appropriated “technologies and trade secrets misappropriated from Burst.com” into Windows Media Player 9, technologies related to fast streaming of audio and video content.
But analysts like Streaming.com say the lack of court determination in the case, now that the two companies settled, leaves prior art questions in limbo, particularly one Microsoft planned to raise and Apple still does: whether Apple possessed similar technology before Burst won its patents.
