Supreme Court Rules Microsoft Infringed on Software Patent
The Supreme Court has affirmed a Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit judgment that Microsoft Corporation willfully infringed a patent held by i4i Limited Partnership and Infrastructures for Information Inc. (collectively i4i), which claims an improved method for editing computer documents.
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Section 282 of the Patent Act of 1952 (35 USC) states that a patent shall be presumed valid and that the burden of establishing invalidity shall rest on the party asserting it through "clear and convincing evidence." However, Microsoft contended that a litigant only needed to persuade the jury of a patent invalidity by a "preponderance of the evidence".
The Supreme Court rejected Microsoft's contentions, explaining that Congress has never considered any proposal to lower the standard of proof regarding section 282. Therefore, the Supreme Court affirmed the CAFC's interpretation of section 282, to require that Microsoft provide "clear and convincing evidence" of the patent invalidity, and its ruling that Microsoft had failed to prove the patent's invalidity.
(Slip Op. 10-290, dated 06/09/11)