On May 18, 2010, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. And Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith introduced a bill into Congress entitled, “Patent and Trademark office Funding Stabilization Act,” a bill that intends to help the USPTO by giving it fee-setting authority and the authority to prevent the diversion of fees.

In May 2010, Microsoft Corporation announced its agreement to pay $200 million to VirnetX, Inc. and license its patents as part of a settlement to a patent infringement lawsuit. VirnetX claimed Microsoft infringed its patents related to establishing secured communication links in virtual private networks.

In May 2010, i4i Limited Partnership announced the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) upheld patent No. 5,787,449 after Microsoft Corporation asked for a reexamination in attempts to invalidate the patent claims. Microsoft was ordered in 2009 to pay $290 million to i4i for infringing the patent-at-issue, which relates to the company’s use of Extensible Mark Up Language (XML) in its Microsoft Word software.

On May 4, 2010, Marine Polymer Technologies, Inc. announced it was awarded $29.4 million in damages in its patent infringement lawsuit against HemCon, Inc.  Filed in 2006, the infringement lawsuit related to biocompatible polymers that Marine Polymer uses in hemostatic products used to prevent severe blood loss.

On May 13, 2010, comic book artist Jazan Wild, founder and president of Carnival Comics, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against NBC Universal, NBC Studios, and Tailwind Productions, Inc., claiming the company’s TV show “Heroes” infringed his graphic novel series.