Hasta La Gadget!

It’s like the saying goes, patent infringement suits make strange bedfellows. Or something like that. Microsoft has been joined by an impressive cast of companies, in its battle against i4i.

The software giant appealed to the Supreme Court back in August, in an attempt to reverse a $290 million award over a feature in Microsoft Word said to infringe on an i4i patent. The company is looking to redefine the way patents are validated–and it has some high-profile allies.

Some of the biggest corporations in the world (including a handful of Microsoft competitors) have filed amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs, including Apple, Google, Intel, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, Facebook, Walmart, and Toyota.

Microsoft is battling to lower the bar for the defense in such suits. Says SeattlePI,

During infringement lawsuits, courts apply the “clear and convincing evidence” standard to determine whether a patent — one already approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office — is indeed valid. Microsoft, and other companies that deal heavily in intellectual property, would like to see the standard changed to “preponderance of evidence.”

The new rules, at least in theory, would help protect large companies from so-called “patent trolls.”