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Federal judge rules Microsoft Word infringes patent

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Wednesday held that Microsoft has infringed on a patent of Canadian company i4i with portions of its Word 2007 and 2003 word-processing software. Judge Leonard Davis enjoined the company from selling the infringing programs and upheld a jury award against the company of more than $200 million for the infringement. Davis held that Microsoft had infringed on a patent i4i held for the use of certain XML encoding, ordering the company to eliminate the software's ability to display the code. The judge gave Microsoft 60 days to comply with the injunction, but Microsoft has said it plans to appeal the ruling. Aside from the patent issues, Microsoft has faced numerous legal challenges based on antitrust and unfair competition allegations. In July, the company announced that it would offer European consumers an option to select from a list of several Web browsers "in an effort to address competition law issues related to Internet Explorer and interoperability." In June, a South Korean court ruled that the corporation violated antitrust laws by packaging software with the Windows operating system, but dismissed requests for damages from two Korean software firms on the grounds that the damages were not sufficiently linked to Microsoft's conduct. In February, Google sought to join a European Commission lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging that the bundling of software violated an EC Treaty provision that prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on August 13, 2009 (boomark / email).