Microsoft rings up Supremes for AT&T patent case

Microsoft Corp. presented oral arguments Wednesday before the Supreme Court in a 6-year-old patent lawsuit, filed by AT&T Inc., the outcome of which could require U.S. software companies to pay fines for patent-infringing software assembled in other countries.

At issue in the case is how the court will interpret an obscure section of U.S. patent law, Section 271F. That section says that if a U.S. company makes product components in the U.S and supplies them to companies overseas -- and the products assembled from those components result in patent infringements -- the company must pay patent damages for products assembled overseas as well as those made stateside.