Microsoft Lose Appeal – Office & Word Sales Banned From January 11

Microsoft’s court battle with i4i has been going on for some time now, since August the small Canadian company i4i has been a constant pain for Microsoft and now the US district court has sided with i4i. Microsoft will have to stop selling copies of Office and Word from 11 January, after its appeal against a patent infringement ruling failed.

In August 2009 the US district court ruled against Microsoft for infringing a patent from i4i in its 2003 and 2007 versions of Office and Word. Microsoft appealed the decision as expected but yesterday the original ruling was upheld. The technology involved is to do with custom XML.

“any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML,”

It was found that the way Word uses XML to open certain types of files infringed on a 1998 patent by i4i to do with XML handling algorithms. However, the next version of Word and Office – 2010, isn’t affected by this at all because it doesn’t contain any of the XML code in question.

Microsoft’s repsonse to the ruling

We have just learned that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has denied our appeal in the i4i case. We are moving quickly to comply with the injunction, which takes effect on January 11, 2010

This ruling doesn’t apply to any versions of Microsoft Word or Office already sold, it will only apply to copies of Word/Office 2003 and 2007 which are sold from the 11 January. Microsoft say they have been preparing for this since the case first began and are confident they will have copies of Word available for sale in the US by January 11, with this “little-used feature” removed.

“We expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for US sale and distribution by the injunction date”

Microsoft also have to pay $200 million in damages to i4i. Microsoft say they are thinking of appealing the case again but they are yet to make a decision.

While we are moving quickly to address the injunction issue, we are also considering our legal options, which could include a request for a rehearing by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals en banc or a request for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court.

And of course i4i Chairperson Loudon Owen couldn’t be happier.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the ruling (click for PDF) from the appeals court which upheld the lower court’s decision in its entirety. This is both a vindication for I4i and a war cry for talented inventors whose patents are infringed,

So it looks like this case may be coming to a close, unless Microsoft decide to appeal again, so the bottom line is to us consumers is:

If you were thinking of getting a copy of Word or Office, get in now, before January 11. Alternatively, download the new 2010 beta of Microsoft Office for free, which has none of the offending code in it.

Sources:

Cnet

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