Microsoft Loses Patent Appeal

On June 14, 2006 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a US District Court decision holding Microsoft's Office Pro program infringed United States Patent No. 5,537,590.

In 1990 the inventor, Carlos Armando Amado, developed a program to link a spread sheet to a database. Microsoft was not interested in the program in 1992 when Mr. Amado offered to license his technology for use in Excel. Mr. Amado received a patent for the program in 1994; and, in 1995, Microsoft debuted software that linked Excel spreadsheets to Access databases.

In June 2005, a U.S. District Court for the Central District of California jury determined that Microsoft's sale of Office Pro software infringed Mr. Amado's patent and awarded $6.1 million in damages. The District Court issued an injunction against additional sales of the product, but stayed the injunction until the case was resolved on appeal. During the appellate process, all sales from the infringing software were placed into an escrow account, which is now worth more than $65 million.

The Court of Appeals remanded the case back to the District Court to determine Mr. Amado's share of the escrow account. Microsoft is currently pursuing its legal options.