The US Court of Appeals has granted Microsoft’s motion to stay an injunction that would have stopped the company from selling Word. Now Microsoft’s lawyers just have to convince the court that they didn’t ‘borrow’ ideas from someone else’s patent.

The injunction came after an east Texas judge found that Microsoft violate the patent of i4i Inc. Microsoft was ordered to pay the company $240 million and stop selling Word by Oct. 10.

Then Microsoft threatened ‘massive disruptions’ to its distribution partners and irreparable harm to its business if it stopped selling Word. Apparently the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals judge wants to hear more before levying the ban.

Another option given to Microsoft over Word is to cut out the offending features that pertain to the ruling. At issue is Word’s ability to act as an XML Editor, a feature that the majority of Word users were likely unaware of before the ruling.

Microsoft will still have to make it’s case before the Appeals Court. “We are happy with the result and look forward to presenting our arguments on the main issues on Sept. 23,” says Kevin Kutz of Microsoft.

However the stay of injunction may also give Microsoft time to excise the offending features from Word. That way the company will have time to market an alternative version of the software in case the injunction is upheld.

There’s also the chance that Microsoft’s high-powered lawyers and deep pockets could get the suit overturned in the Appeals Court. The Texas court that levied the injunction is known as a haven for patent holders looking to score massive settlements from big business.

The likely impact of all this hubbub on Microsoft’s sales? Nada. If the ruling against Microsoft stands, the company will likely be able to resolve the problem one way or another without actually having to pull Word off the shelves.

The company that filed suit against Microsoft may not be a household name, but it may find itself $240 million richer after this debacle. And all without actually having to write any software or market it to a single customer.

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Entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 9:44 am under Legal, Microsoft.

Read more entries by Dave Jeyes.
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