Autodesk wisely kept its mouth shut about the verdict. But Microsoft was in heavy denial. Microsoft lackey Jack Evans, who doesn't know jack about patents, emailed it in: "We continue to contend that there was no infringement of any kind and that the facts in this case show that Microsoft developed its own product activation technologies well before z4 Technologies filed for its patent." That song-and-dance didn't woo the folks in court who counted.

6,044,471 claims go to securing software to reduce unauthorized use, while 6,785,825 claims a method for securing software to decrease software piracy.

Microsoft thinks it has an ace up its sleeve: the court has yet to rule on inequitable conduct by z4 during prosecution of the patents, knowingly withholding relevant prior art.

After a 6-day trial in that well-oiled patent litigation machine called the Eastern District of Texas, jurors deliberated 19 hours straight, to just past midnight Wednesday morning, to get down on the hard word.

Check the story on Michael Smith's Easter District of Texas weblog. Michael is so hip, even the court quotes him.