Microsoft granted stay on Word ban

The U.S. District Court, Eastern Division of Texas has become a hotbed for patent infringement suits thanks to a judge with a history of siding with patent holders in disputes. The latest and highest profile case heard in the court was a patent infringement suit brought against Microsoft by Canadian firm I4i LP.  You can read more about it here.

Microsoft has won an decision to stay the inunction set to go into effect on October 10 that would have forced Microsoft to stop selling Word without removing some features. The Federal Circuit in Washington said it acted “without prejudicing the ultimate determination of this case.”

Oral arguments in the appeal are set to be heard in Washington on September 23 and the order for an injunction originally granted in Texas won’t go into effect until the appeal is resolved. The court said that Microsoft met the  conditions needed to be granted a stay.

Read the full story here:  Dailytech.

Texas Judge Bans Microsoft From Selling Word in U.S.

US District Court of Eastern Texas judge, Judge Leonard Davis, has ordered sales of Microsoft Word in the U.S. banned until a final judgement is reached.  The injunction also came with an order for Microsoft to pay an additional $40M USD for willful infringement, $37M USD in prejudgement interest, and $21,102 per day in additional fines.  The court also is asking that Microsoft hand over $144,060 a day, until the final judgement and damages are paid (though it may get some of this money back).

How did Microsoft get into this mess?

Microsoft’s Office 2003 and 2007 wove XML into Word, with the introduction of .docx, otherwise known as Office Open XML, as the format of choice.  The new format brought an open standard and better storage to the application.  Unfortunately, it also turned into one of the company’s biggest legal headaches.

In making Office, Microsoft implemented technology seemingly covered under a 1998 patent (No. 5,787,449) by a developer of collaborative-based content solutions, Toronto-based i4i.  The patent covered “manipulating a document’s content and architecture separately.”

A Texas federal court ruled in May that Microsoft had infringed on the i4i’s patents and ordered Microsoft to pay $200M USD in unpaid royalties.  Microsoft was reportedly hurt in the proceedings by a published trail of emails that indicated that the company knew that it was infringing on i4i’s work.  Microsoft disagreed strongly with the verdict and promised to fight it in appeals court.

Until the final decision is reached, Microsoft is banned from selling any version of Microsoft Office containing copies of Word that can open .XML, .DOCX, or DOCM files containing custom XML.  Microsoft has a mere 60 days to comply with the injunction.

With Office being one of Microsoft’s staple products, and with the .docx format being the current default format, an appeal seems inevitable.  Microsoft has not issued a formal response yet to ban on Word sales.

Content courtesy of Daily Tech.