Strange To Say: Microsoft Banned For Selling Word In US

A judge in Texas has ordered Microsoft(more info) to stop selling its cashing cow MS Word(more info) due to patent infringement. Judge Leonard Davis has issued an injunction that prohibits Microsoft from selling versions of Microsoft Word products that has the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files containing XML formats. Toronto-based i4i Inc has filed a suit against Microsoft in March 2007 for violating its 1998 patent (No. 5,787,449) on a method for reading XML. Moreover the court has also asked Microsoft to pay more than $290 million on accounting to damages incurred to i4i. Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz said in a statement.

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.

The court has given 60 days to Microsoft to comply on this injunction. It will be enough for Microsoft to come out from it either by taking a stay on this ruling or by settling the matter outside the court but this will probably involve Microsoft signing a big check. I am bit surprised by the whole episode. At the first place how anyone can take a patent on method of reading a XML document? This is what happens when you have people examining patents with no insight into technology behind them.