Supreme Court to Hear Microsoft Patent Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments (granted certiorari) in a patent-infringement case between Microsoft and i4i. A ruling by the Supreme Court in favor of Microsoft could send the case back to the lower courts for further review or a new trial. However, the case could have broader implications for patent cases and the IT industry, because the court plans to review the standard of evidence required to prove a patent invalid.

Microsoft Versus i4i

The path to the Supreme Court began with the Microsoft appeal of a May 2009 district court jury verdict that ruled that Microsoft had willfully infringed on i4i’s U.S. patent 5,787,449 (the ‘449 patent) and that the ‘449 patent was valid and enforceable.

The U.S. Appeals Court subsequently upheld the patent-infringement ruling against Microsoft and ordered the company to pay i4i US$290 million in damages and to license the patent or remove the infringing feature from Word by Jan. 11, 2010. Microsoft subsequently changed Word to stop the infringement and appealed to the Supreme Court.