In a landmark court hearing in Delaware, USA, the jury ruled in favor of IPA Technologies in its claim against Microsoft for violating its patents in creating the Cortana voice assistant. The fine ordered for Microsoft to pay was a staggering $242 million.
IPA Technologies is a subsidiary of Wi-LAN, a patent-licensing company co-owned by Canadian technology company Quarterhill and two investment firms. The company acquired patents from Siri Inc., which was absorbed by Apple in 2010, and uses the technology in the Siri virtual assistant.
Microsoft has stated that it believes it has never infringed on IPA’s patents and will appeal the ruling. The lawsuit was initially filed in 2018, alleging that Microsoft violated several patents related to personal digital assistants and voice data navigation, but the case was narrowed down to one patent infringement in Cortana.
IPA has also filed lawsuits against Google and Amazon for patent infringement. Amazon successfully dismissed IPA’s lawsuit in 2021, while the case against Google is still ongoing.
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