I4i wins $290 million against Microsoft; Microsoft ordered to edit Word or stop selling it. Tuesday, Microsoft was ordered by a US Federal court to edit Word or stop selling it by January 11, 2010. The Canadian company, I4i LP of Toronto won a $290 million appeal against Microsoft. The original verdict issued in August was set at $200 million against Microsoft, and Microsoft appealed and lost the appeal in court Tuesday.
Microsoft Word is part of the Microsoft Office software and is used by approximately 500 million people.
I4i LP had “a patented invention related to customizing extensible markup language, or XML, a way of encoding data to exchange information among programs,” according to Business Week.
Microsoft has been working on the changes since the verdict was released on August and "put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from our products." They said that Microsoft Word copies without the feature will be ready for sale by January 11, 2010.
"Microsoft is not entitled to continue infringing simply because it successfully exploited its infringement," the panel of judges said.
"A small company was practicing its patent, only to suffer a loss of market share, brand recognition, and customer goodwill as the result of the defendant's infringing acts," the court said. "The district court found that Microsoft captured 80 percent of the custom XML market with its infringing Word products, forcing i4i to change its business strategy."
Sources: Business Week and Associated Press
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