Microsoft had argued before an appeals court that its Outlook calendar date-picker tool did not infringe an Alcatel-Lucent patent and called for a $358m jury verdict to be overturned.
The case was appealed from a district court in San Diego, where a jury ruled that Microsoft infringed patents and ordered it to shell out $358m or $511m including interest.
Constantine Trela of Sidley Austin, Microsoft’s attorney, claimed that the patent for the technology, which allows Outlook users to click on a date to open it rather than typing it in, was invalid because it was an obvious extension of earlier technology.
Trela said: You have to show that somebody did it. There’s no proof here that it happened. That’s the fundamental problem.
However, John Desmarais of Kirkland Ellis disputed Trela’s assertion that the patent should not have been granted as it was a small improvement on existing technology. What you’re talking about here, in 1985, 1986, nobody was doing it, he said.
This lawsuit is the last one pending after Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft settled other patent fights in December.
