It isn't often that someone can take on a giant in the courts and come out ahead, but it seems that Microsoft might be in more than just a bit of trouble in the patent lawsuit that was field last year by Carlos Amado. The lawsuit, which focused around accessing data in between an Access database and an Excel worksheet. The courts earlier found Carlos in the right and made Microsoft pay over $8.5 Million to him. Of course, they immediately appealed the decision. Unlucky for them, the appeal was lost, and the patent that Carlos holds was upheld.
Aside from Microsoft coughing up the money, it also resulted in a change to all Office 2000, Office XP and Office 2003 installations to implement a workaround.