Law360 announced notable IP cases to watch in 2011, and the list includes the i4i and Microsoft case about the standards for proving patent invalidity, in which Finnegan is representing i4i. The Supreme Court, which agreed in November to hear Microsoft's appeal of a $290 million patent infringement judgment against it, will review whether there should be a lower evidentiary standard for proving invalidity when certain prior art is not considered by the patent examiner during prosecution. A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found that Microsoft Word software infringed one of Toronto-based i4i’s patents, and Microsoft was ordered to pay $290 million and halt sales of some versions of Word. With Finnegan representing i4i, the Federal Circuit later affirmed the lower court ruling and declined to rehear the case en banc. Microsoft has urged the high court to reconsider a standard that requires a party seeking to invalidate a patent to prove invalidity by "clear and convincing" evidence, even when there is prior art that was never considered by the patent examiner. According to the article, if the Supreme Court finds that a more lax standard applies when prior art is not reviewed by the examiner, it will radically alter the nature of trials in the patent world and will apply to every patent case.