Microsoft loses $290 million dollar appeal over patent infringement

It seems that Microsoft is in some deep trouble with a Canadian company over a patent that it says was violated in the 2003 and 2007 versions of Microsoft Word.

Back on Aug. 12, a jury in a federal U.S. district court in Texas ruled in favor of i4i Ltd, a small Canadian software maker, against Microsoft for infringing one of their patents. The claim was that the big software maker had used a form of extensible markup language (XML) in the 2003 and 2007 versions of Word that the smaller company held a patent for. The jury awarded a $290 million dollar claim for damages and an injunction against Microsoft selling those versions of Word.

Microsoft appealed the ruling, but Reuters is now reporting that a U.S. court of appeals has upheld the original ruling.

The most likely outcome is that Microsoft will agree to pay some form of royalty to i4i Ltd. so that it can continue to use the technology, but that has not yet been announced.

• 

• Microsoft wins minor patent law victory at major price
• MP3 patent decision reversed in Microsoft’s favor
• Linux fans urge Microsoft to sue them for patent infringement
• Microsoft removing XML support in wake of legal decision
• Motorola sues Microsoft right back over patent infringement