Hearing set in Word patent case

Jake Widman
Saturday, 22 August 2009 04:17

IT Industry - Strategy

An appeals court will hear Microsoft's appeal of a patent infringement decision on September 23.

Last May, a Texas jury found Microsoft guilty of infringing on an XML-related patent held by Canadian firm i4i.

Last week, the judge in the case ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word 2003 and 2007 by the end of October and to pay i4i US$290 million.

Microsoft quickly filed a motion to stop the order.

Now the United States Court of Appeals has agreed to an expedited hearing of Microsoft's appeal.

In a statement reported by the Canadian Press, i4i said it was happy with the quick schedule and was still convinced it would win.

"We firmly believe that the U.S. District Court made the right decision on the merits of the case," i4i chairman Loudon Owen said in a statement.