Patent Community Awaits Crucial DecisionYesterday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Microsoft v. i4i . As discussed at length previously, Microsoft has sought Supreme Court review of the following issue:Whether the court of appeals erred in holding that Microsoft’s invalidity defense (which rested on prior art never considered by the USPTO) must be proved by clear and convincing evidence. You can find a transcript of yesterday’s hearing (here). As expected, patent reexamination was discussed as evidence of Congressional acquiescence with respect to the clear and convincing standard—the proposed patent reform legislation was even mentioned. As usual the court was more interested in policy debates than anything else, and made it clear that some of the solutions proposed in the amicus briefing were unworkable. ….and now we wa

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Microsoft v. i4i . As discussed at length previously, Microsoft has sought Supreme Court review of the following issue:

Whether the court of appeals erred in holding that Microsoft’s invalidity defense (which rested on prior art never considered by the USPTO) must be proved by clear and convincing evidence.

You can find a transcript of yesterday’s hearing (here). As expected, patent reexamination was discussed as evidence of Congressional acquiescence with respect to the clear and convincing standard—the proposed patent reform legislation was even mentioned. 

As usual the court was more interested in policy debates than anything else, and made it clear that some of the solutions proposed in the amicus briefing were unworkable. ….and now we wait.