syngod
Moderator
Microsoft illegally took technology used to link Microsoft's Excel program with its Access database application via a single spreadsheet from a Guatemalan inventor, Carlos Armando Amado, lawyers stated during opening statements.
Carlos Armando Amado said he filed a patent application in 1990 and that he unsuccessfully tried to sell it to Microsoft two years later.
Microsoft began using his software without permission in various versions of Access, such as Access 95, 97, 2000 and 2002, according to Amado, who said he created the technology while he was a graduate student at Stanford University.
Amado is seeking damages that could exceed $500 million in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Central California. The suit did not specify a figure for damages, but Amado's attorneys estimated that it was about $2 per software copy sold, which would equal about half a billion dollars based on the software sold to date. The jury trial is expected to last two weeks.
Source: Winbeta
Carlos Armando Amado said he filed a patent application in 1990 and that he unsuccessfully tried to sell it to Microsoft two years later.
Microsoft began using his software without permission in various versions of Access, such as Access 95, 97, 2000 and 2002, according to Amado, who said he created the technology while he was a graduate student at Stanford University.
Amado is seeking damages that could exceed $500 million in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Central California. The suit did not specify a figure for damages, but Amado's attorneys estimated that it was about $2 per software copy sold, which would equal about half a billion dollars based on the software sold to date. The jury trial is expected to last two weeks.
Source: Winbeta
