WSJ.com - Microsoft Settles InterTrust Suit

WSJ.com - Microsoft Settles InterTrust Suit "In the latest in a series of moves to clear up legal issues, Microsoft Corp. has agreed to pay $440 million to InterTrust Technologies Corp. to settle a broad patent suit that had cast a cloud over Microsoft's plans in digital media.
The deal gives the software giant a license to InterTrust's large portfolio of patents in technology for protecting music, movies and other digital content against unauthorized copying.
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Will Poole, a Microsoft senior vice president, said the InterTrust licenses augment his company's own intellectual property as well as patents that Microsoft had licensed from ContentGuard, a start-up spun off from Xerox Corp. He argued that all the patent rights give Microsoft advantages over competitors in digital media, such as Apple Computer and RealNetworks Inc."