In Microsoft v. i4i, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the “clear and convincing evidence” standard required to crack the presumption of validity afforded issued U.S. patents. While Microsoft argued that the presumption of validity should be subject to the lesser standard of “preponderance of the evidence” (i.e., what level of proof it would take to overcome the presumption) so that it is consistent with the burden on defendants in civil actions, the Supreme Court disagreed and stuck with a long line of precedent in maintaining the more rigorous “clear and convincing” standard. Microsoft sought to have the standard lowered in the hopes of avoiding a judgement of more than $250 million issued against it for infringement of i4i patent 5,787,449. The decision does not change the law, but rather provides patent owners with further confidence in the presumption of validity that will be afforded by the courts.