A four-year-old patent dispute ended in Microsoft's defeat. And the international tech giant now owes $290 million to a small Canadian firm. The Supreme Court rules in favor of i4i over Microsoft, saying the tech giant can't rewrite the patent laws. The Supreme Court's decision on Thursday in the Microsoft vs. i4i case was anticlimactic and likely a disappointment to most technology companies, legal experts said. Although the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Microsoft's appeal of a four- year-old patent dispute woth i4i, its efforts weren't wasted, legal experts said. The Supreme Court yesterday rejected Microsoft's appeal against a $290 million patent suit brought by i4i. read more Professor Norman Siebrasse on why it won't: the statute is different, the precedent is different, and the U.S. Supreme Court expressly did not consider policy arguments. Microsoft found its appeal in an intellectual-property suit rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, making it vulnerable to a nearly $300 million judgment. - The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Microsofts appeal in its long-running patent-infringement suit with Canadian firm i4i. That renders Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) vulnerable to the nearly $300 million judgment delivered by the lower courts. Chief Justice John Roberts, apparently an owner of Micr... The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against Microsoft in an appeal tied to a major patent dispute, ordering the Redmond-based company to pay a record $290 million patent fine. Supreme Court justices voted unanimously to uphold an earlier judgement stating Microsoft had infringed patents belonging to small Canadian software firm i4i. The judgement comes following a legal battle that began in 2007 when i4i sued the software giant claiming its Microsoft Word productivity software infringed on i4i patents. I4i was awarded $290 million by a federal judge at that time, and Microsoft would proceed to appeal the ruling for four years despite agreeing to alter its software in order to remove the infringing features. Read The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled Microsoft must pay $290 million to a small Toronto software company i4i over a patent action which claimed Microsoft Word had included an XML editing feature that i4i invented. The U.S. Supreme Court today affirmed a $290 million judgment won by Dallas- based law firm McKool Smith on behalf of i4i Limited Partnership and i4i Inc. in a patent infringement judgment against software giant Microsoft Corp. McKool Smith principal Doug Cawley, who worked as lead trial counsel for i4i, said the ruling is a victory for patent holders everywhere. "Today's ruling, which enforces the Federal Circuit's historical reliance on 'clear and convincing evidence,' will have a sweeping impact on how patents are protected," Cawley... Microsoft has lost a Supreme Court patent case and must pay $290 million to tiny Toronto software company i4i. The court ruled Thursday in an opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor with six judges joining.... Top U.S. court rules against Microsoft in i4i patent appeal. 3M Co. was a supporter of a small Canadian software company that won a record $290 million jury verdict in a patent case against software giant Microsoft. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday against Microsoft's appeal against the Toronto company, i4i. Smaller companies that hold patents worried that if Microsoft prevailed, it could lower the standard of proof for invalidating a patent, crippling small companies that depend on patent protection. While Maplewood-based 3M (NYSE: MMM) isn't a small company by any means, it does hold a huge number of... Microsoft on Thursday lost its final appeal in i4i's patent lawsuit against it over patents. The US Supreme Court upheld the verdict that Microsoft had copied i4i technology for XML code in Office and owed about $290 million. Microsoft said the ruling was "not what we had hoped for" but instead reinterpreted the loss as a proof of its call for patent defense improvement.... Microsoft didn't just lose its Supreme Court appeal to overturn its long- running i4i patent infringement case, it was trounced. The Justices voted unanimously in favor of i4i, once again kicking court-based software patent reform in the gut. And yet, there is still a glimmer of hope that the ruling will make it easier to invalidate bad patents. By an 8-0 vote, the Supreme Court has denied Redmond's appeal of a $290 million verdict won by i4i Inc. read more This isn't a huge surprise, but in the Microsoft v. i4i case over what the standard for invalidating a patent should be (either the super high bar of "clear and convincing evidence" or the slightly lower bar of "the preponderance of the evidence,") the Supreme Court has now decided that the higher bar is what Congress intended (pdf). This means that it's that much more difficult to invalidate bad patents. The Court's ruling is basically that the common law presumption of validity mostly (but not entirely) used this standard, and when Congress passed the 1952 Patent Act (really written by patent lawyers), it simply meant to codify what the common law had said on that issue. It was an 8-0 ruling (with Chief Justice Roberts not taking part due to Microsoft investments, I believe), though Justice Thomas had some reservations about the thinking, but not the final judgment. The opinion was written by Justice Sotomayor, who got a bit snarky at points: > _ "Squint as we may, we fail to see the qualifications that Microsoft purports to identify in our cases." _ I recognize the general reasoning of the Court in the case. Basically, ...
Key Words: i4i
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http://pixelhat.net/
Friday, June 10, 2011
$290 Million Judgment on Microsoft in Patent Dispute with i4i David Over Goliath Loses Case To Supreme Court ruling seen as a win for patent trolls gives small victory say experts upholds against Will vs. Influence Canadian Law Patents ordered to pay $290M fine loses case must million McKool Smith wins Rules Must Pay $290m 3M also winner Micosoft appeal has rejects of infringement award Score One For The Trolls Says Congress Intended It Be Very Difficult Invalidate
