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Microsoft sued for $90 mil. over Halo, online technology

10.03.2009
Microsoft is currently being sued over technology that allows players to host and participate in online games, according to the Boston Globe. Paltalk, a company that specializes in Internet chat service, claims that they own the patent rights to inventions developed by MPath Interactive Inc., which allows Halo players to run "real-time, multiplayer online games." Microsoft, however, says that the MPath technology is for older dial-up services and don't apply to the way online system works.

PalTalk Holdings Inc. says Halo games and the Xbox console on which they are played infringe two patents for inventions developed by MPath Interactive Inc. PalTalk bought the patents for less than US$200,000, Microsoft lawyer David Pritikin said.

Microsoft said it did review the inventions and chose a different path in developing its games. The technology is for an older dial-up method of communicating between computers and "the patents don't cover the way the Halo games work," Pritikin said.

Microsoft also is challenging the validity of the PalTalk patents and told the jury that, even if it agrees with PalTalk, "the patents aren't worth much, certainly not $90 million. --

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