A detail has emerged regarding the whole Microsoft/Alcatel-Lucent imbroglio: an Alcatel representative just told me that Alcatel-Lucent has in fact cross-licensed MP3 technology to other companies. Although Alcatel-Lucent wouldn't say how many companies it had licensed MP3 to or when such licensing may have occurred, this indicates that they aren't a pure "patent troll."
I still think it's incredibly strange that two companies, Fraunhofer and Alcatel-Lucent, both claim to own the right to license MP3, but have a feeling it has something to do with engineers cooperating on innovation without thinking about the eventual business ramifications. Evidently, Fraunhofer and Bell Labs/AT&T had an agreement that gave both parties the right to license whatever technology resulted from their collaboration on the MP3 format.
More on this soon, but for now, it's at least clear that Alcatel-Lucent was not just sitting on these patents waiting to sue someone, because they cross-licensed them to at least two other companies.
