Microsoft ordered to pay $290 mn in Word patent case

SEATTLE - A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a $290-million judgement against Microsoft for infringing on a patent in its flagship product Word relating to the use of XML or extensible markup language.

The US court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit also ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word programmes containing the infringing code from Jan 11, 2010.

The ruling came in an appeal by Microsoft against a Texas jury verdict last August which found that Microsoft had violated patents owned by Canadian software company i4i Inc.

“A small company was practicing its patent, only to suffer a loss of market share, brand recognition, and customer goodwill as the result of the defendant’s infringing acts,” the three-judge panel said in court documents.

“The district court found that Microsoft captured 80 percent of the custom XML market with its infringing Word products, forcing i4i to change its business strategy.”

Microsoft did not issue a reaction to Tuesday’s ruling, but experts said the company is likely to try to reach a settlement with i4i which would see it pay an ongoing licensing fee to i4i.