Microsoft loses Word appeal, moves on
Microsoft has now officially lost its case, and the appeal, against Toronto-based company i4i. The lawsuit was brought over the use of XML in Microsoft Word. But Microsoft seems willing to move on from the case, modifying Word to abide by the ruling.
This case has been running since March 2007, which is when i4i filed a patent infringement against Microsoft seeking an injunction and damages. I4i owns a patent covering how XML (Extended Markup Language) documents are read.
On May 20 of this year, a judge ruled in favor of i4i and ordered Microsoft to pay $200 million in damages. In August, the same judge ordered a permanent injunction which would have seen Microsoft unable to sell Word in its current form. That is if Microsoft hadn’t appealed the decision.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today decided to uphold the original verdict. PC World reports the three-man appeals court panel as stating:
A small company was practicing its patent, only to suffer a loss of market share, brand recognition, and customer goodwill as the result of the defendant’s infringing acts. The district court found that Microsoft captured 80 percent of the custom XML market with its infringing Word products, forcing i4i to change its business strategy.
Microsoft now faces a $290 million payout and the prospect of stopping selling the affected versions of Word from Jan. 11, 2010. However, things aren’t as bad as they at first appeared, with Microsoft making clear the exact details of the injunction in a statement.
This injunction applies only to copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 sold in the U.S. on or after the injunction date of January 11, 2010. Copies of these products sold before this date are not affected.
We expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction.
In effect, Microsoft isn’t really going to be too badly affected by the injunction, apart from that rather large multi-million fine it is facing.
Strangely, given that Microsoft seems keen to alter the software in order to move on, it closes its statement by not ruling out further legal options in order to have the decision reversed. Microsoft’s lawyers are nothing if not persistent.
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