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Tech giant pays $440 million to settle patent suit

Monday, April 12, 2004 | 9:04 a.m.

REDMOND, Wash. -- Microsoft Corp. is paying $440 million to InterTrust Technologies Corp. to settle a 3-year-old patent infringement lawsuit over technology for protecting music, movies and other digital content against piracy.

Today's settlement is the second announced this month by the world's No. 1 software company. In a deal announced April 2, Microsoft agreed to pay Sun Microsystems $1.6 billion to settle a private antitrust suit and resolve patent claims.

The settlement with InterTrust, of Santa Clara, Calif., resolves all legal issues between the two companies and grants Microsoft a license to InterTrust's patents on "digital rights management," code designed to prevent the unauthorized copying of files, the companies said. The code limits the number of copies that can be made from a song or movie that is downloaded over the Internet.

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