Court fines Microsoft $ 242 million for stealing technology when creating Cortana

By Alimat Aliyeva

In Delaware (USA), the final court hearing was held on the claim of IPA Technologies, which accused Microsoft of violating its patents when creating the Cortana voice assistant, Azernews reports.

According to the information, after the trial, the jury agreed with the IPA's argument that the voice recognition technology used in Cortana violates its patent for computer communications software and imposed a fine of $ 242 million on Microsoft.

IPA is a "daughter" of the patent-licensing company Wi-LAN, which is jointly owned by the Canadian technology company Quarterhill and two investment firms. She acquired a number of patents from Siri Inc., owned by SRI International, which was absorbed by Apple in 2010 and whose technology she uses in the Siri virtual assistant.

"We remain confident that Microsoft has never infringed the IPA patents and will appeal," a Microsoft representative said in response to a request for comment on the court's decision.

The IPA sued Microsoft in 2018, accusing it of violating a number of patents related to technologies used in personal digital assistants and voice data navigation. As a result, the case was reduced to an accusation of infringement of one patent in the Cortana voice assistant.

The IPA has also sued Google and Amazon over infringement of their patents. Amazon secured the dismissal of the IPA lawsuit in 2021, and the company's litigation with Google is still ongoing.