Judge says Microsoft must stop selling Word

Jake Widman
Thursday, 13 August 2009 00:37

IT Industry - Strategy

In a patent infringement case with far-reaching implications, a Texas judge has enjoined Microsoft from selling one of its flagship products.

The permanent injunction was issued by Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division.

The injunction (PDF download ) says Microsoft is "permanently enjoined from performing the following actions with Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2007, and Microsoft Word products not more than colorably different from Microsoft Word 2003 or Microsoft Word 2007."

The prohibited actions include "selling, offering to sell, and/or importing in or into the United States any Infringing and Future Word Products that have the capability of opening a .XML, .DOCX, or .DOCM file ("an XML file") containing custom XML."

Other actions are also enjoined, all centering around the manipulation of XML files "containing custom XML."

It seems that such actions infringe on a 1998 patent awarded to Canadian company i4i Inc .

i4i describes itself as "a world leader in the design and development of collaborative content solutions and technologies."

For more on the patent dispute, see Page 2.