Microsoft to pay millions after patent ruling defeat

Who says that a giant company could not be sued ? We this is not true with the latest defeat of Microsoft from a Canadian Company i4i, in a report by itp.net

Microsoft, the world’s largest software manufacturer, has to pay a small Canadian company more than $290 million after losing an appeal over a patent related to XML technology used in their popular Word software.

The case started in 2007 when i4i sued Microsoft for alleging that the software giant infringed on their 1998 patent for custom XML technology by integrating it into their Word software, starting with Word 2003. In August this year, a United States District Court found Microsoft guilty of the charges and issued an injunction ordering them to pay i4i $200 million in damages and get rid of custom-XML support or stop selling copies of Word.

Anyway 290 Million US$ is just peanuts with Microsofts income. The injunction will take effect in less than a month on January 11th, 2010 and applies only to copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 sold in the United States on or after the injunction date. Microsoft says that Microsoft 2010 is not affected by this because they have removed the technology in Microsoft 2010.