Articles Posted in Business litigation

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Whenever a party enters into a contract with another party, he/she is agreeing to the terms and conditions set out in that contract. However, the assumption is that if one of the party fails to abide by the terms of the contract, that the other party may terminate the contract. Yet in order to justifiably terminate the contract and incur not penalties there needs to be a valid breach of contract. Whether or not there was in fact a breach of contract was the subject of the Chicago case of Paper Recovery, Inc. v. Segerdahl Corp., Segerdahl Graphics Inc., Marcells Paper & Metal Inc., 07L-3762.

The case centered on the written contracts between Paper Recovery, Inc. and Segerdahl Corporation and Segerdahl Graphics. Segerdahl had contracted Paper Recovery to dispose of its paper waste products. Under the terms of this contract, Paper Recovery would act as the go-between for Segerdahl and paper recycling plants.

Paper disposal companies, such as Paper Recovery, collect and separate the various types of paper waste and then make their money by selling that paper to recycling plants. The amount the recycling plants pay for the different types of paper depends on the paper’s grade, which refers to the quality of the paper product. For example, cardboard yields more per recycled ton than newspapers; therefore, recycling plants will pay more for cardboard than newspapers.

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Four years ago, Microsoft was sued by a technology company for patent infringement. The Toronto-based company, i4i, won its patent lawsuit against the computer giant and were to receive a payment of $290 million for Microsoft’s wrongdoing. However, the payment by Microsoft had been held up by the appeals process Microsoft was engaged in to try and reverse the large settlement.

The Supreme Court recently issued its decision, affirming the lower court’s ruling in Microsoft Corp v. i4i Limited Partnership, 10-290. The main issue before the Court was the level of proof required. In patent lawsuits, courts assume that the patent, in this case held by i4i, is valid. Therefore, the burden of proof lies with the entity accused of violating that patent, which in this case is Microsoft.

The Canadian company, i4i, accused Microsoft of using technology developed by i4i when creating Word 2003 and Word 2007. Specifically, i4i stated that Microsoft has infringed on its patent setting out a new and improved method for editing documents. In the original jury trial, Microsoft was found guilty of willfully infringing on i4i’s patent and was ordered to pay $290 million to i4i and discontinue versions of Microsoft Word containing i4i’s technology.

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