ORDERS TO PAY $290 MILLION IN DAMAGES :Court bars Microsoft from selling ‘Word’ in US

An American court has asked Microsoft to pay damages worth $290 million to Canadian entity i4i for patent infringement related to Microsoft Word and has restrained the software giant from selling the product in the United States.

The litigation is related to patent infringement of Extensible Markup Language (XML) used in Microsoft Word. Canada-based technology firm i4i claimed that it had the patent for ‘custom XML’ used in Word.

‘‘The final judgement is an award in excess of $290 million and includes a permanent injunction against Microsoft Corporation for custom XML in Word 2003 and Word 2007,’’ i4i said in a statement. An XML is a mark-up language XML, which offers editing capabilities and formatting of text, among others.

The verdict on the case was given by the US district court for the eastern district of Texas. This follows a decision by the jury in May which said Microsoft infringed on the patent.

Moreover, the court has restrained Microsoft from ‘‘selling, offering to sell and/or importing in or into the US any infringing and future Word products that have the capability of opening a .XML, .DOCX or .DOCM file containing custom XML,’’ the statement said.

The restrain would be effective after 60 days of the verdict, which was given on August 11. Microsoft said that it was disappointed with the verdict and would appeal against the same. ‘‘We are disappointed by the court’s ruling. We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid. We will appeal the verdict,’’ Microsoft spokesperson Kevin Kurtz said.

Meanwhile, Michel Vulpe who is the founder of i4i said the company was ‘‘very pleased with the terms of the final judgment’’.

‘‘The financial award due to i4i is now over $290 million and a permanent injunction has also been issued against Microsoft... We feel vindicated with the result,’’ i4i founder Vulpe noted
Source:- The Times of India 15 Aug. 09 Page No. 28 Delhi
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