A Texas jury ruled Microsoft and Autodesk must pay $133 million to a Michigan man who claimed he was owed royalties for inventions to prevent software piracy.

The Tyler, Texas, jury today awarded Z4 Technologies, founded by David Colvin of Commerce Township, Mich., $115 million from Microsoft and $18 million from Autodesk. Colvin claimed two patents were infringed by software including Microsoft's Office and Windows XP and Autodesk's AutoCAD.

The verdict is the second large patent loss for Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker. The company is fighting a 2003 verdict of $521 million for patent infringement over a feature in its Internet Explorer. The Z4 verdict continued a pattern of victories in East Texas federal courts for patent owners claming infringement.

"There are many indications here that this is a pro-patent district," said Greg Upchurch, research director of LegalMetric. "When you look at the national numbers, it's a lot higher."

Owners won 11 of 13 patent trials in the Eastern District of Texas from 1994 to March, 85 percent compared with a national average of 67 percent, according to LegalMetric, a St. Louis company that tracks such cases.

A jury in nearby Marshall, Texas, also in the Eastern District, last week awarded $74 million to TiVo, which sued EchoStar Communications claiming infringement of a patent for video recording technology.

Closely held Z4 can ask that U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis issue an order that could force Microsoft and AutoDesk to change their anti-piracy software. Ernie Brooks, a lawyer for Z4, declined to discuss Z4's plans.

The judge must now deal with the argument by Microsoft and AutoDesk that the patents should be ruled unenforceable.

Microsoft and AutoDesk contend that Colvin withheld important information from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office during the application process and as punishment shouldn't be allowed to enforce its patents.

"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," Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said.

AutoDesk spokeswoman Caroline Kawashima called the outcome "surprising and disappointing for both of us" and said the companies "are going to pursue our options."

Autodesk, based in San Rafael, Calif., had $1.52 billion in sales last year. Microsoft, whose Windows operating system runs about 90 percent of the world's computers, had $39.8 billion in sales.

The two disputed patents in the Microsoft suit involve passwords and codes assigned to each copy of an authorized version of software. Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, and AutoDesk, a maker of software used in architecture and movie-making, said they developed their own anti-piracy techniques.

Z4 lawyer Frank Angileri said before the trial that Colvin is a draftsman whose main job is drawing inventions for patent applications. He is a "tinkerer" who invents on the side, the attorney said.

Colvin came up with his software design because of his interest in fighting piracy, said Angileri, of Brooks & Kushman in Southfield, Michigan.

John Gartman of Fish & Richardson in San Diego, representing Microsoft and Autodesk, argued that the companies don't use Colvin's inventions and developed their own anti-piracy software before he filed his patent applications in 1998.

The suit is one of more than two dozen pending against Microsoft, including one filed in Chicago by the University of California and Eolas Technologies, the exclusive licensee of the university's patent covering technology to read information stored on the Internet.

A jury in August 2003 awarded Eolas $521 million in damages. An appeals court upheld the finding of infringement and the award. At the same time, it ordered a new trial to allow Microsoft to argue that the patent is invalid.

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