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.
Strange To Say: Microsoft Banned For Selling Word In US
Reviewed by RD Singh
on
04:02
Rating: