As per a report by Law360, Cyph Inc. sued Microsoft in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on September 21, alleging that Teams and Azure infringe five patents covering ephemeral and group encrypted communication, including methods for encrypting authentication information. Cyph, built by former SpaceX engineers around quantum-resistant cryptography, has litigated its patent portfolio against other major platforms before, reaching a cross-license settlement with Zoom in 2023.

The suit adds Microsoft to the list of large platform operators facing patent claims over how they secure real-time communication and cloud infrastructure, at a moment when enterprise demand for verifiably encrypted collaboration tools is rising alongside AI-driven data-handling concerns. Microsoft has not yet filed a public response.