It's been a busy winter for Microsoft's four-lawyer patent litigation team. On Feb. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in AT&T v. Microsoft to determine whether the software giant is responsible in the United States for its patent infringement overseas. It was Microsoft's first appearance before the justices.

But in case the gravity of the event was lost on anyone, less than two weeks later, a San Diego jury provided a $1.52 billion reminder in its verdict against Microsoft -- the largest patent infringement verdict ever -- in a separate patent case concerning digital music technology. Nearly half of the damages claimed by plaintiff Alcatel-Lucent in that case come from abroad, so the outcome of the Supreme Court case could directly affect the San Diego damages.

Microsoft's in-house patent litigation team is headed by Andrew Culbert, associate general counsel. A former partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath, Culbert has served as lead counsel in several of Microsoft's biggest cases.

Culbert has a team of three trial lawyers and three patent litigation paralegals who help manage the company's docket, which currently has about 40 patent cases. According to Culbert's boss, Thomas Burt, Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for litigation, most of the pending cases against Microsoft are brought by so-called patent trolls.

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