Juanita R. Brooks

In the past year, rather than trying too many cases, Brooks said, "I've spent a lot of time in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals trying to hang on to the victories from the district court."

It's been a long haul for Brooks, who served as lead counsel representing Microsoft Corp. in a damages trial after it was found to have infringed a calendar software patent held by Lucent Technologies Inc. Lucent v. Microsoft Corp., CV 07-2000-H-CAB (S.D. Cal., filed Oct. 16, 2007.)

An earlier jury had awarded Lucent $358 million, but the Federal Circuit ordered a new trial on damages. The second jury awarded Lucent $70 million in July 2011.

Four months later, Brooks persuaded U.S. District Judge Marilyn L. Huff to further reduce the award to $26.3 million, plus $15 million in interest.

The judge ruled that Lucent's expert witnesses overvalued Microsoft's Outlook program when calculating damages.

Both sides appealed.

"They didn't like losing their $70 million, and we thought $26 million was too high," Brooks said.

Late last year, the parties reached a confidential settlement.

Brook's biggest challenge in the case was the law itself, she said.

"At the time we started the case, the law had yet to address how does one place a value on a tiny feature in a feature-rich operating system." Brooks said. "There was no guidance at that point from the Federal Circuit. It was the Lucent case that finally began developing that guidance."

Judges continually cite the Lucent case, Brooks said.

"They are throwing out damages that plaintiffs are asking for, saying that they are over-inflated and not following the guidance of Lucent, and making them start all over. I think this will have impact for years to come."

- PAT BRODERICK