Microsoft Countersues Lucent Over Xbox

Microsoft struck back at Lucent late Monday, filing a countersuit in an attempt to have the company's patent infringement lawsuit dismissed. Additionally, it accused Lucent of violating several Microsoft patents.

Lucent claims video decoding technology within the Xbox 360 infringes on its patents. It said Microsoft had failed to license the next generation system, and filed suit in April.

Gateway and Dell were originally sued over the patent in 2003, however Microsoft assisted the companies in fighting the case by filing a declaratory judgment complaint in response. The patent was later thrown out over typographical errors.

Lucent then filed a revision to the patent that specified it covered digital video. This allowed Lucent to sue Microsoft directly, now alleging that its proprietary technologies were included within the Xbox 360 gaming console.

In the countersuit, Microsoft claims that two patents from Lucent are not valid, as well as accusing the communications equipment company of infringing on the Redmond company's own patents. A spokesperson for Microsoft expressed disappointment that Lucent had chosen litigation over negotiations.

Lucent was not commenting on the situation.