STEVE INSKEEP, Host: NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: If Microsoft prevails in this case, it could become easier to challenge the validity of some patents. The case stems from a dispute between Microsoft and a Toronto company, i4i, which claimed that a particular editing feature in Microsoft Word infringed on its patent. Microsoft countered that the patent was invalid. Company lawyer Andy Culbert says it should never have been issued in the first place.</s>ANDY CULBERT: It wasn't new. It had already been done, and you only get a patent on things that are new and inventive.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Microsoft's appeal in a major patent infringement case. The issue: What is the proper legal standard to determine if a patent is valid.