Microsoft hit with $242 million US verdict in Cortana patent lawsuit

By Blake Brittain (Reuters) – Microsoft must pay patent owner IPA Technologies $242 million, a federal jury in Delaware said on Friday after determining that Microsoft’s Cortana virtual-assistant software infringed an IPA patent. The jury agreed with IPA after a week-long trial that Microsoft’s voice-recognition technology violates IPA’s patent rights in computer-communications software. IPA is…

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Coty misses revenue estimates on cautious retail orders, Lacoste license sale

By Ananya Mariam Rajesh (Reuters) – CoverGirl parent Coty missed fourth-quarter revenue expectations on Tuesday, impacted by its divestiture of Lacoste fragrance license and controlled orders from cautious retailers, which weighed on growth in prestige and mass-market perfumes. Its decision to sell the Lacoste license back to Lacoste resulted in a 2% impact on net…

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Fed’s Goolsbee says US interest rates are ‘relatively restrictive’

(Reuters) – Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee on Friday said he believes U.S. monetary policy is “relatively restrictive,” meaning that borrowing costs are putting downward pressure on inflation. Increased supply, including on the labor side, makes it difficult to interpret if strong job gains and economic growth indicate any worrisome overheating, he said at…

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