In 2009, a federal jury found that Microsoft Word had infringed a custom-XML patent held by i4i, a small Toronto software company, and awarded i4i about $290 million — one of the largest patent verdicts against Microsoft. Microsoft appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to make patents easier to invalidate, but in June 2011 the Court ruled unanimously against it, affirming the verdict and the demanding 'clear and convincing evidence' standard for overturning a patent. Microsoft was forced to remove the infringing feature from Word. The defeat, during Bill Gates's tenure as Microsoft chairman, was a notable setback in the company's long history of patent litigation.