An injunction handed down (PDF) by Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas gives Microsoft 60 days to rectify patent concerns or else Microsoft Word cannot be sold or supported in the US.
The ruling stems from a 2007 lawsuit filed by Toronto firm i4i Inc. The suit alleges that the XML implementation used by Microsoft to read and write .DOCX and .DOCM file types infringes on i4i’s patent (No. 5,787,449) for reading XML.
Patent holder and i4i founder Michel Vulpe was understandably please with the ruling.
“We are very pleased with the verdict. The jury heard extensive testimony and evidence and concluded that Microsoft had indeed infringed our patent,” he said. “We feel vindicated with this result.”
The injunction (PDF) also bars Microsoft from testing, demonstrating, marketing or servicing any product present or future that contains the infringing code.
Microsoft, meanwhile, took the opposite side of the coin with frustrated disappointment.
“We are disappointed by the court’s ruling,” Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz said in a prepared statement. “We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid. We will appeal the verdict.”
Hilarity ensues.
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