Microsoft Settles Patent Suit Filed by Alacritech

Microsoft Corp. settled a patent lawsuit filed by Alacritech Inc. over a networking feature in future versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed. A federal judge in San Francisco ruled in April that Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft couldn’t sell or market a networking feature called Chimney while San Jose-based Alacritech’s lawsuit was pending.

The feature is scheduled to be released late next year in the Longhorn version of the Windows operating system and in other Microsoft server software.