Judge says Microsoft must stop selling Word

Jake Widman
Thursday, 13 August 2009 00:37

IT Industry - Strategy

i4i specializes in solutions for using XML in document collaboration -- including, ironically, a product called x4o, described as "The One Step Solution to XML Authoring in Microsoft Word."

In 1998, the company was awarded a US patent for a "method and system for manipulating the architecture and the content of a document separately from each other."

To this non-lawyer, the patent seems to cover practically any means of working with XML, which is pretty much by definition a way of manipulating the architecture and content of a document separately -- and is also an open standard.

Regardless, the patent was issued, and in March 2007 i4i sued Microsoft for infringement.

Two years later, in March 2009, a jury found in favor of i4i and awarded the company $200 million in damages.

Today, Judge Davis tacked on an additional $40 million in penalties, $37 million in "prejudgment interest," and $165,162 a day in interest until a final judgment is reached.

Microsoft has 60 days to comply. Company spokesperson Kevin Kutz said, ""We are disappointed by the court's ruling. We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid.

"We will appeal the verdict."