When you're big and powerful like Microsoft,
you're bound to stir up some dust every once in a while with such things like patents and copyrights. Just take
networking guru Lucent for example. They've recently set their sights on the software giant claiming that Microsoft has
violated a patent they hold called "Adaptive Coding and Decoding of Frames and Fields of Video."So what does that even mean? Basically, they've got their underwear in a wad because the Xbox 360 shipped with MPEG2 technology. Lucent believes this violates their patent. Again, Microsoft is no stranger to this kind of behavior. In the past, Lucent tried to pull a similar move on a different issue, but the judge said it was an invalid case because of (you guessed it) a typo.
Think this is going to screw up the 360 or invoke altercations? Probably not. Chances are we're going to see a settlement out of court. The Xbox 360 is counting on such technologies and so Microsoft will probably want to resolve this problem with Lucent as soon, and easily, as possible without making too much of a ruckus. Only time will tell.
[Thanks, djphatjive; Via Xbox-Scene]
