Microsoft has tried to persuade judges in America's top court that those defending against patent litigation cases should be held to a lower burden of proof than at present. A lawyer representing Microsoft at the Supreme Court told judges on Monday they should reject the long-held need for a defendant in patent-infringement …

The US government has thrown its support behind tiny i4i in its Office patent dispute with Microsoft. US acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, employed by the Department of Justice, has filed an amicus brief in the case that comes out against Microsoft. Katyal wrote that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), rather than …

Microsoft and Google have found a common cause. The two companies just joined forces to sue a tiny geo-location patent jihadist. The giants have taken GeoTag to court, claiming that the company sued more than 300 outfits that use Bing Maps and Google Maps. The pair want a US court to rule that the Bing and Google Maps …

America's top court will hear Microsoft defend claims that its Word software infringed on patens held by software maker i4i. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Microsoft's appeal against a 2009 court order that it must pay i4i $290m for infringements of patents by Word. A decision …

Microsoft's request to have the patent claim it brought against Canadian software maker i4i examined has been thrown out by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). i4i said it was pleased that all the claims of US patent number 5,787,449 that belong to the company came out unscathed following a re-examination called for by …

The Canadian software maker that saw a US federal appeals court uphold a ruling against Microsoft yesterday, has described the decision as a "war cry for talented inventors whose patents are infringed." As we reported on Tuesday, Microsoft has been ordered to pay $290m to i4i, following a long-running patent spat with the firm …

Microsoft must remove custom-XML editing from Word or face a permanent injunction barring the company from selling recent versions of the software, a federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a $290m patent infringement judgment against Microsoft, won by Toronto-based …

A federal judge fundamentally misinterpreted a patent asserted against Microsoft Word, an error that should require a $290m infringement penalty to be overturned, attorneys for the software giant argued Wednesday. "I don't think there's been a fair reading of this patent and this trial history," Microsoft attorney Matthew …

Word litigant i4i has claimed Microsoft worked to destroy its business while publicly touting its partner status. i4i said that Microsoft's inclusion of custom-XML editing in Word from 2003 usurped its own invention and relegated the company from mass-market player to mining the relatively smaller pharmaceutical sector. The …

A US federal court will hear Microsoft’s Word injunction appeal on 23 September. i4i, the company that secured a major victory against MS earlier this month, confirmed the hearing late last week. On 11 August a judge for the US District Court of Eastern Texas ordered Microsoft to stop shipments of Word in 60 days time, after …

Microsoft's warned it'll suffer "irreparable harm" and that "major public disruption" will result if it's forced to redesign Word to comply with a US court ruling. The company claimed the court's injunction will mean Office is kept out the market for months as it redesigns Word and the suite to remove an offending XML patent …