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The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Apache Software Foundation, and the Computer & Communications Industry Association filed an amicus brief in support of Microsoft today, asking the U.S. Supreme Court for a ruling that would have a major impact on patent litigation.

The EFF brief, filed alongside 10 others - including ones from Facebook, Intel, and Apple - stems from the $290 million patent infringement judgement against Microsoft. In 2009, a district court found Microsoft guilty of infringing on the patents of the Canadian software company i4i. i4i holds a patent for building a method of processing custom XML, a method i4i claimed - and the courts agreed - that Microsoft violated with its 2003 and subsequent versions of Word.

Three new patent applications that just became public on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website reveal that Apple is now patenting ideas for mobile applications. Specifically, these patents applications describe iPhone apps that would aid in making travel arrangements, booking hotels and shopping.

The patent applications were uncovered this morning by wireless news site Unwired, which called the development "scary" and equated Apple to a patent troll. If granted, these apps would allow Apple to patent ways in which mobile applications function, including everything from mobile boarding passes to store locator functions.

A decision has finally been reached in the Bilski case, a pivotal patent law case that has been in the appeals process since 2008. According to TechDirt, the Supreme Court narrowly ruled that Bilski's specific patent was invalid while supporting the Federal Circuit's "machine-or-transformation" test.

The key question in the Bilski case was whether or not business methods are patent-eligible subject matter, and today's decision said that business methods - as some software patents might be considered - are permissible, but that Bilski's specific method was too vague.