Court May Make It Easier to Invalidate an Invention
Illustration by Viktor Koen
The small software firm i4i limited Partnership punches above its weight. Its clients include heavyweights like Amgen, Bayer, Biogen Idec, Warner Chilcott, Merck and Novo Nordisk. But the Toronto-based firm may have landed its biggest blow in 2009, when the company successfully sued Microsoft for patent infringement and won a $240 million award. With interest, the award is at least $290 million.
However, i4i’s fight with Microsoft is far from over. The software giant has brought the tussle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments in Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Limited Partnership on April 18. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. owns Microsoft stock, and he has recused himself from the case.
For Microsoft, there’s far more at stake than several hundred million dollars. There’s a major legal issue: To what extent should patents be presumed valid? The company has been trying for years to get the Supreme Court to rule on this issue, and it appears the company is on the brink of success.
“This is a very important case,” says Los Angeles attorney Glenn W. Trost. “The Supreme Court, for the first time, is going to squarely address the quantum of proof needed to establish the invalidity of a patent in patent litigation.”
Click to continue reading “Tilting the Patent Scale” from the April issue of the ABA Journal.
