Supreme Court to hear Microsoft appeal

The Supreme Court agreed to hear Microsoft's appeal in a patent case that forced changes in the company's Word software and could cost it $300 million.

Microsoft, fighting a verdict won by closely held I4i, says the federal appeals court that handles patent cases is making it too hard for those accused of infringement to argue that a patent never should have been issued and is invalid. The software giant has support in its appeal from more than a dozen publicly traded companies, including Apple and Google. Apple told the justices that the patent system "is tilting out of balance," giving disproportionate power to people who secure patents of questionable legitimacy. The case concerns a method developed by I4i for editing documents using XML, which tells the computer how text should appear. In its 2007 lawsuit, I4i accused Microsoft of incorporating the invention into Word.