"Microsoft Corp. should pay Alcatel- Lucent $1.52 billion, a federal jury said, deciding the world's biggest software maker used digital music technology without permission and handing down the largest patent ruling in history," Jeff St.Onge and Bill Callahan report for Bloomberg.

St.Onge and Callahan report, "The San Diego jury said Microsoft infringed two Alcatel- Lucent patents related to the standard for playing music files on a computer. Alcatel-Lucent accused Microsoft of infringing the patents with its Windows Media Player, including the version in the new Vista operating system."

"The jury found that Alcatel-Lucent is entitled to more than $759 million for each of the two patents found to be infringed. It also upheld the validity of the patents. The jury of eight men and one woman began weighing the case Feb. 15, a day after lawyers made final arguments in a 12-day trial," St.Onge and Callahan report...