Minutes after the case was heard, Microsoft lawyer Theodore Olson and Seth Waxman, both of whom are former U.S. solicitors general, spoke with media on the high court's front steps. Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith joined them.

Olson said the justices were "exceedingly well-prepared" to hear the case, which involved "highly technical questions." The statute at issue, which was incorporated into U.S. patent law in 1984, is an "important but complicated" one, he said. "They asked good, difficult, probing questions of all of us."

This was the latest in a string of patent cases heard recently by the high court, which historically has avoided them. That is a sign that Chief Justice John Roberts, who recused himself from this case, is "very concerned with the development of patent law" and realizes that patents are critical for the nation's economy, Smith said.