Microsoft makes Google look silly in the Android patent wars

What on earth were they thinking?

InfoWorld Tech Watch.

Microsoft loses at the Supreme Court

Got your scorecard handy? Good. You’re going to need it.

Back in 1986, three engineers working for Bell Labs at AT&T filed for a patent that covers a specific way of entering data on a computer screen. Back in the mid-80s, people usually used a keyboard to enter data. AT&T’s so-called “Day” patent describes a way of entering data into fields on the screen without using a keyboard. The computer displays information on the screen, and the user chooses the information to be placed into the data field, no typing required. Examples given in the patent application include a menu, a calculator, and an on-screen graphical keyboard.

If that sounds similar to the way you can click on a calendar to stick dates in an Outlook appointment, well, the jury and the judges agree. Microsoft claims that the patent isn’t valid because it was obvious, and anticipated.

AT&T spun off its hardware product business – christened “Lucent” – in 1996, then Alcatel bought Lucent along with its patents in 2006. That’s how a Bell Labs patent turned into a Alcatel-Lucent patent.

Here’s where it gets complicated. Back in 2002, Lucent sued Gateway and Dell, claiming multiple patent infringements. Microsoft voluntarily joined the lawsuit on Gateway and Dell’s side. The court broke up the original claim into three parts, which turned into three separate trials. In a scene reminiscent of South Park’s “Everyone vs Everyone” episode, Microsoft, Lucent and Alcatel-Lucent subsequently sued each other multiple times, each claiming the other infringed on various and sundry patents.

Microsoft lost the first of the three claims in February 2007, with the jury awarding a whopping $1.57 billion to Alcatel-Lucent, but that decision was overturned in September 2008. The second of the three claims was dismissed before it went to trial, although Alcatel-Lucent has hinted that it will appeal.

In April 2008, Alcatel-Lucent won the third of the three claims – the one that involves Outlook’s date picking interface, among others – with the jury awarding $367 million in damages. In September 2009, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit determined that, although the patent infringement ruling was valid, the method for calculating damages was not: a lower court would have to go back and re-assess the damages. Microsoft appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, and that’s the case MS just lost. As a result, the damages hearing will take place as scheduled, starting on December 3.