Microsoft Loses Spreadsheet Patent Battle

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News, New York

20 June 2006

Last Wednesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found against software giant Microsoft in a patent dispute with Guatemalan inventor, Armando Amado.

The case pertains to a method for linking spreadsheets to databases. Mr Amado claims that the technology was discussed with Microsoft in 1992, and that although the firm declined to license it, the feature was incorporated into versions of Excel released from 1995 onwards.

In a statement, Morrison & Foerster, the law firm which represented the inventor, announced that:

"The appellate court upheld a June 2005 jury verdict that the patent is valid and that Microsoft infringed the patent with its sale of Office Pro products. The District Court’s judgment had awarded Mr. Amado $6.1 million."

"The District Court entered a permanent injunction, but stayed the injunction pending appeal. As a condition of the stay, the District Court ordered Microsoft to escrow an account covering sales of additional infringing products. The Federal Circuit left it to the District Court to determine Mr. Amado’s share of the escrow account in light of Microsoft’s continued infringement of the patent. Currently, the account balance is over $65 million."

Vince Belusko, Morrison & Foerster partner and lead attorney for Mr. Amado, commented:

“This ruling signals the validity of the patent and confirms Microsoft’s liability of infringement on Mr. Amado’s software program. We are hopeful that the District Court will now award Mr. Amado substantial monies from that escrow account when the matter is returned to the court.”

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