Microsoft Loses Word Patent Appeal

Microsoft has lost its appeal of a patent claim against Word, meaning they can no longer sell the disputed version of the word processing software. (Until they pay off the people who actually invented it.)

The ruling, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit -- which handles many patent and trademark cases -- may signal the endgame of a long-running dispute between Microsoft and Toronto-based i4i Ltd. On August 12, a jury in a federal U.S. district court in Texas ruled in favor of i4i Ltd against Microsoft, for infringing a patent relating to the use of XML, or extensible markup language, in the 2003 and 2007 versions of Word. The jury slapped more than $290 million in damages on Microsoft and the court granted i4i's motion for an injunction preventing the world's top software company from selling versions of Word that contain the disputed patent technology. That injunction was stayed while Microsoft appealed the case with the Court of Appeals. According to Tuesday's ruling, which upheld the injunction, Microsoft will be prevented from selling infringing versions of Word from January 11, 2010. However, industry experts say the most likely outcome is a settlement between the two parties that allows Microsoft to pay a royalty to i4i and continue selling Word.