Microsoft's $358 million damage award overturned

A US court of appeals has overturned a judgment in a patent dispute case of Alcatel-Lucent vs. Microsoft. The case, based around a patent for entering information into the calendar on Microsoft Outlook, originally ruled that Microsoft did infringe on this patent and awarded $358 million dollars to Alcatel-Lucent.

The appeals court overturned the ruling by saying that "Microsoft did indirectly infringe Alcatel's patents, but said the damages awarded against the firm were not justified and must be retried" according to Yahoo.

The result is the damages that were initially awarded to Alcatel-Lucent were unjustly high and that a more reasonable amount needs to be administered. The two companies will now head back to court to try and determine the appropriate damages.

This is the final case against Microsoft from Alcatel-Lucent which was a part of a multi-billion patent dispute. The majority of the dispute was settled last year for $512 million dollars.