AT&T Corp. asked a jury to award it at least $90 million in damages from Microsoft Corp., as a patent dispute over technology to speed Internet transmissions of human voices went to trial in New York. Microsoft is challenging the patent's validity, contending that it licensed the technology through Intel Corp. and other companies. AT&T lawyer Stephen Neal told jurors that Microsoft didn't pay royalties for using technology the phone company invented in 1981, when researchers devised a way to send voices digitally without making them sound like machines. He said Microsoft used the technology in its NetMeeting and TrueSpeech products.
News source: Seattle PI
