Microsoft wins ruling in patent lawsuit
From Times Wire Services
Microsoft Corp. won its bid to have a patent-infringement lawsuit by creditors of defunct Internet service provider At Home Corp. thrown out.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in Washington that a trust set up to pay At Home’s creditors lacked authority to sue Microsoft over a patent they received to pay bankruptcy claims.
The court ruled that U.S. patent law, not bankruptcy law, governed who had power to sue over patents transferred to help pay off a bankrupt company’s debt.
At Home, which offered Web access over cable lines and once had a $16.5-billion market value, filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2001.
