Poor Microsoft, they’re getting sued left, right and center by everyone. Small Canadian company i4i, have now decided to have a go at them. In August of this year, the US District court sided against Microsoft over a patent infringement claim made by i4i. Of course Microsoft appealed the decision but yesterday the original ruling was upheld and Microsoft’s appeal was dismissed.
The judge ruled that Microsoft would have to stop selling 2003 & 2007 editions of Microsoft Word and Office, which contain the offending XML code, from January 11th. What’s more, Microsoft will have to cough out $200 million in damages to i4i.
Of course i4i Chairperson Loudon Owen was delighted with the ruling.
We couldn’t be more pleased with the ruling (click for PDF) from the appeals court which upheld the lower court’s decision in its entirety. This is both a vindication for I4i and a war cry for talented inventors whose patents are infringed,
Microsoft released a statement with their response to the ruling.
We have just learned that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has denied our appeal in the i4i case. We are moving quickly to comply with the injunction, which takes effect on January 11, 2010
This offending code which i4i has claimed a patent infringement over is a form of custom XMl, and is against “any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML”. It’s basically over how Word uses this Custom XMl to open certain files.
This ruling doesn’t apply to any versions of Microsoft Word or Office already sold, it will only apply to copies of Word/Office 2003 and 2007 which are sold from the 11 January. Microsoft say they have been preparing for this since the case first began and are confident they will have copies of Word available for sale in the US by January 11, with this “little-used feature” removed.
We expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for US sale and distribution by the injunction date
The good news is that Microsoft’s latest edition of Word and Office, 2010 doesn’t contain any of this XML code and is unaffected by this ruling.
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
So the bottom line, if your thinking of getting a copy of Word or Office, get it before January 11, or just download the Office 2010 beta for free.
What’s more, Microsoft say they are thinking of appealing the case again so it may not be closed for certain.
While we are moving quickly to address the injunction issue, we are also considering our legal options, which could include a request for a rehearing by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals en banc or a request for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court.
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