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SEATTLE
—
Microsoft
lost an appeal in a patent case against software company
i4i, and a federal court has prohibited the
Redmond, Wash.
, company from selling any more copies of Word and
Office 2007 that have the infringing feature after
Jan. 11
.
On
Tuesday, the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
upheld a lower court decision that
Microsoft
had infringed on i4i's patent. It also upheld an
injunction and damages of
$290 million
.
Microsoft
is considering asking for a rehearing or requesting a
writ of certiorari from the
U.S. Supreme Court
.
"We
are moving quickly to comply with the injunction, which
takes effect on
January 11, 2010
," said
Microsoft
spokesman
Kevin Kutz
in a statement.
"It's
another step forward and vindication," said i4i
Chief Executive
Loudon Owen
. "We have a valid patent. It was infringed on
willfully."
To comply
with the injunction,
Microsoft
said it will have to remove the feature from copies of
Word and Office 2007 sold after
Jan. 11
.
The
disputed feature in Word allows the use of custom XML
elements in documents.
Microsoft
dismissed the feature as "little used" on
Tuesday while i4i claimed the feature was a
"cornerstone" of
Microsoft's
internal architecture.
People
who buy Word after
Jan. 11
will not be able to use custom XML features in .docx, .docm
or .xml files. The custom XML tags will appear as pink
outlines around the tag. The injunction will not affect
users who bought copies of Word before
Jan. 11
.
i4i, a
private software company with 30 employees in
Toronto
, builds software for pharmaceutical companies to manage
their documents. The company received a patent referred
to as the " '449 patent" for the XML editing
feature.
"
Microsoft's
ability to write enterprise software is severely
compromised by this," said
Michel Vulpe
, i4i's founder. "They did it by stealing someone
else's software. They should ask where
Microsoft
gets its innovation from."
Microsoft's
Kutz said 0.2 percent to 0.5 percent of Word users in
the United States
use the feature.
A federal
jury in
Texas
found in May that
Microsoft
had infringed on i4i's patent and awarded i4i
$200 million
in damages.
Judge
Leonard Davis
in the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
affirmed the decision in the case in August, and changed
the damage award to
$290 million
.
In its
appeal,
Microsoft
challenged the evidence, the damage award and the
injunction.
A
three-judge appeals court panel affirmed the lower
court's decision Tuesday in an opinion written by Judge
Sharon Prost
.
Addressing
whether there was enough evidence to conclude whether
Microsoft
knew its feature in Word would infringe on i4i's patent,
Prost wrote: "Internal Microsoft e-mails showed
that other
Microsoft
employees received a marketing e-mail from i4i
containing the patent number, were 'familiar' with i4i's
products, and believed the Word's custom XML editor
would render that product 'obsolete.'"
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