Patent Law Practice Center

US Supreme Court Accepts Microsoft Appeal in i4i Case

The following was sent in by Gene Quinn, of IPWatchdog and Practice Center Contributor.

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Microsoft Corporation v. i4i Limited Partnership, with Chief Justice John Roberts taking no part in the decision or petition. The Supreme Court did not request the views of the Solicitor General, choosing rather to accept the matter with no input from the United States government.  The decision to grant cert. comes only days after the United States Patent and Trademark Office refused to grant reexamination of the patent in question.

Microsoft had filed an ex parte reexamination request on the patent in question, US Patent No. 5,787,449. The ‘449 patent exited reexamination unchanged. Microsoft then filed a second ex parte reexamination request, and it is this second request that was denied by the Patent Office on Wednesday, November 24, 2010. The denial of this second request means that the Patent Office did not believe there to be a substantial new question of patentability. (more…)