May 21 - 9:40am EDT   Microsoft on Wednesday lost a lawsuit it had filed against Alcatel-Lucent over patents relating to telephone-to-Internet technologies. The US-based International Trade Commission has absolved Alcatel-Lucent of claims that it had infringed four patents for the bridging technology, further reversing an initial decision that had found the company culpable of infringing on at least one patent. [full story]

May 9 - 11:45am EDT   A federal judge has reinstated one of two dismissed patent disputes against Microsoft and Dell from French-American telecommunications partnership Alcatel-Lucent. CNN Money writes that the San Diego district court made an error when deciding the definition of a "terminal device", so the case is being presented again to the federal court system. The dispute is situated over a communication protocol that allows a computer and a device to exchange information. [full story]

April 23 - 2:45pm EDT   Alcatel-Lucent today began court proceedings for the next of its lawsuits against Microsoft. The plaintiff argues in its complaint that Microsoft's Xbox game systems violate a 1993 patent relating to the code for generating video frames. The US/French partnership says that it will use its jury trial to demand $1.50 for every alleged misuse of the patent but is not yet clear as to which uses apply to the suit. The suit could potentially apply to each Xbox sold before the conclusion of the trial. [full story]

April 18 - 12:45pm EDT   The French-based telecom Alcatel is releasing its first official phone for the US, the E206a. The phone is being carried by the GSM-based MVNO O2 Wireless -- not to be confused with Europe's O2 -- and uses an extremely basic candybar design, having only a dual-band receiver, and virtually no other features. Aside from foregoing technologies such as 3G, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi, the 206a lacks even EDGE or GPRS data support, and does not have a USB port. [full story]

April 4 - 11:10pm EDT   Microsoft late on Friday was asked by a US federal court to pay $368 million in compensation to Alcatel-Lucent over alleged infringement of two patents relating to touchscreen form and stylus technologies. Although the plaintiff had demanded $1.75 billion and initially accused Microsoft of infringing four patents, a jury in the San Diego courtroom has reduced the amount after deciding that Microsoft is not culpable of violating two video control-related patents. [full story]