Microsoft has lost a major court case, with a jury ruling the company violated IPA Technologies’ virtual assistant patents.
IPA sued Microsoft over its Cortana virtual assistant, saying the Redmond company infringed its patents. According to Reuters, a jury sided with IPA and ruled that Microsoft must pay $242 million. Interestingly, the patent involved was bought from the company that created Siri before Apple acquired it and incorporated it in iOS and macOS.
IPA has sued Amazon and Google as well. Amazon won its case against IPA in 2021, while Google’s case has yet to be decided. In the meantime, Microsoft said it has not infringed the patent and plans to appeal.
“We remain confident that Microsoft never infringed on IPA’s patents and will appeal,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters.
Given that Amazon already defeated IPA in court, there is reason to believe that Microsoft may prevail on appeal, citing Amazon’s case as precedent.