Supreme Court rules against Microsoft in major patent case

Re:Supreme Court rules against Microsoft in major patent case by carussell on Thursday June 09, 2011 @01:07PM (#2637834)

It doesn't strengthen software patents. It upholds the lower court's decision and says the standard of proof will continue to be applied as it has in the past. Ruling in Microsoft's favor would have loosened the requirements to prove a patent invalid.

Don't get me wrong, it's the least favorable of the two, but it doesn't make things worse; it just doesn't make things better.

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Re:Supreme Court rules against Microsoft in major patent case by kenjackson on Thursday June 09, 2011 @01:11PM (#2637848)

but it doesn't make things worse; it just doesn't make things better

Absolutely correct. Man, I wrote a bad comment. :-)

When I said it makes it stronger, I meant against the alternate universe where MS wins the case. Your statement is much clearer.

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Re:Supreme Court rules against Microsoft in major patent case by esoteriq on Thursday June 09, 2011 @07:59PM (#2639228)

I think this case does make things marginally better. Before you jump all over me, look at the holding.

The Court said that it will maintain the CCE standard for invalidity defenses, not plaintiffs' claims of invalidity. It's a fine point, but important one neverhtless.

You see, CCE has been the standard for plaintiffs alleging patent invalidity since 1982. It's right in the statute. http://openjurist.org/title-35/us-code/section-282/presumpti... . The problem was that Microsoft was trying to reduce the burden of proof for the defense.

A weaker burden for defenses is very very bad. That means, even if a plaintiff shows, by substantial evidence, that a patent is invalid, a defendant can just give the minimal amount of defense...and the defendant will win.

So, this improves things...a tiny, weeny bit.

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