Digital power technology patents licensed

Power-One, Inc, a provider of power conversion and power management solutions, has entered into a non-exclusive Field of Use agreement to license its digital power technology patents to Texas Instruments (TI), a designer and manufacturer of analog technologies, digital signal processing (DSP) and microcontroller (MCU) semiconductors. The non-exclusive license agreement provides access to Power-One’s portfolio of digital power technology patents for incorporation in TI’s DC/DC controllers and modules, but does not extend to merchant stand-alone power supplies that use TI controllers. www.power-one.com.

Microsoft ordered to pay $200 million

According to a Bloomberg report, Microsoft has been ordered by a federal jury to pay $200 million to a Canadian company over a patented way to process electronic documents in Microsoft’s Word products. A federal jury found that Microsoft infringed a patent owned by closely held i4i LP. It is the second- largest patent jury award this year, behind a $388 million verdict against Microsoft won by a Singapore company in April. The $200 million award equals about four days of profit for the company.  The i4i dispute is over a method of processing electronic documents using embedded codes. Microsoft, argued at the trial that it didn’t use i4i’s technology and sought to invalidate the patent.

What have you spent on (or invested in) patents? We would really like to know how much it is costing the IT community to protect intellectual property. Readers might also find a search on patents interesting.