A USA Judge, on Tuesday 11 August, banned Microsoft from selling MS Word in the United States. The Texan court granted an injunction against Microsoft, preventing it from selling copies of Word, its word-processing software.
Microsoft has been prohibited from selling flagship software offering Word in the US because of successful legal action taken against the company in Texas by i4i.
i4i, based in Toronto, Canada, claimed that Microsoft "willingly violated" a patent granted in 1998 concerning methods for reading XML, a kind of programming language. The patent is not for XML, but for the process of reading and writing XML documents.
Judge Leonard Davis ruled that Microsoft had infringed i4i's patent, and ordered the software giant to pay $290 million in damages.
Microsoft said it would appeal against the verdict. "We are disappointed by the court's ruling," said Kevin Kutz, a spokesman for the software giant.
The strange thing is that i4i actually sells XML products for MS Word, making them reliant on MS Word. Is this not a case of biting the hand that feeds you? Not likely. An agreement will probably be reached. Most likely one involving Microsoft signing a big cheque.
For more check out the Telegraph.co.uk, DailyTech and Reuters
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