Patent Damages and Defensive Patents
During the recent controversy regarding Microsoft’s RSS related patent, there seemed to be a general disbelief that Microsoft was filing the patent primarily for defensive purposes. As an example of the patent litigation landscape today, Don Dodge posted about a patent suit against Google, Apple, and Napster. Even more illustrative of the dangers of patent actions, Bloomberg published an article yesterday about patent litigation damages. Bloomberg found that patent damages have steadily increased and that patent actions in U.S. resulted in $1 billion in patent damages last year, an amount almost triple the 2005 amount.
Bloomberg listed Microsoft as suffering the second largest patent damage award.
A Texas jury awarded his client $133 million, including $115 million from Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft. U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis added $25 million in damages against Microsoft, based on a jury finding of willful infringement. Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, has appealed.
What you don’t see on that list is any offensive patent claims by Microsoft. Given the size of a target that Microsoft presents for patent suits and the potential of incredibly high damages, it’s only prudent for Microsoft to take actions, including defensive patent applications, to protect itself.