Maybe the U.S. Supreme Court has a small soft spot for non-practicing entities after all.

Following a series of high-profile rulings last year that put a crimp in the NPE business model, the Supreme Court gave patent holders a break on Tuesday. The justices ruled 6-2 that a good faith but mistaken belief that a patent is invalid is not a defense to a suit for induced infringement. The decision reinstates a $74 million judgment against Cisco Systems Inc.