Yet another Supreme Court patent case?

U.S. Justices May Review Patent Case - New York Times:

The Supreme Court asked the Bush administration yesterday for help in deciding whether to review a patent dispute between the Microsoft Corporation and AT&T over technology used to improve Internet voice transmissions.

The request, directed to the United States solicitor general, Paul D. Clement, signaled that the justices might have questions about a lower court ruling that allowed AT&T to seek royalties for programs installed in copies of the Microsoft Windows operating system on computers in foreign countries. The court generally heeds the administration's advice on whether to take up pending appeals.

Microsoft's appeal seeks to limit the vulnerability of software makers to patent lawsuits for sales outside the country. Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, argues that software code does not fit within the provision in federal law that bars exports of patented inventions without permission.

"This case presents a recurring question of vital importance to the U.S. software industry," Microsoft argued in its appeal, filed in Washington. The lower court ruling "vastly expands the extraterritorial reach of U.S. patents involving software."

. . .

AT&T urged the justices not to hear the patent case.

"Microsoft's position conflicts with 30 years of patent jurisprudence, business practices in the software industry and Microsoft's own patent portfolio," AT&T argued.

Seems like the Court has decided that patent law is too important to be left to the lower courts and that 30 years of jurisprudence they have laid down.