Thursday, April 04, 2013 8:39:39 AM
By Ben Fox Rubin
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is in talks with small technology firm Vringo Inc. (VRNG) to settle a patent suit Vringo filed against the tech giant earlier this year, according to a recently filed court document.
Vringo, which focuses on mobile technology and intellectual property, sued Microsoft in January over its use of technology covered by the same two patents it referenced in a suit it won against Google Inc. (GOOG) and others last year.
In a court document dated Wednesday, a pretrial conference for the Microsoft suit was postponed to June from April, after Vringo disclosed to the judge settlement discussions were taking place.
Vringo declined to comment and a Microsoft representative wasn't immediately available for comment.
Vringo's shares jumped 16% to $3.20, while Microsoft was up 0.3% to $28.45.
Vringo had sued Google--the primary defendant--as well as AOL Inc. (AOL), IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI) and others, alleging infringement of two of its patents used to select and position advertising on Internet-search results. It won about $30 million in damages and was granted future royalties from the suit, which have been estimated to be valued at several hundreds of millions of dollars.
That case remains in its post-trial phase. Google has suggested it will appeal, saying it would ultimately win the case.
In the new suit, Vringo alleged Microsoft had willfully infringed the two patents with its search engine, Bing.com.
Write to Ben Fox Rubin at ben.rubin@dowjones.com
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