For two years, EMC Corporation made a point of using its court fight with Oasis Research as a vehicle for reforming plaintiff-friendly quirks in the patent system. Then the company went the old-fashioned route and beat Oasis's case.

After three years of aggressive defense work, including two detours up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, EMC Corporation finally scored a direct hit Friday in its patent fight with the non-practicing entity Oasis Research Corporation.