Microsoft handed $200 million patent fine

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 21 May 2009 at 08:43

Microsoft has been ordered to pay $200 million in damages for infringing the copyright of Canadian company i4i.

i4i, which creates software for manipulating documents, claimed in a 2007 suit that Microsoft knowingly infringed one of its patents in both Word 2007 and Vista.

Microsoft denied infringement throughout the case and has vowed to appeal the verdict handed down by a Texan court: "The evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid," says a Microsoft spokesman.

"We believe this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported, so we will ask the court to overturn the verdict."

Microsoft is currently involved in a number of legal battles over patents, and was recently ordered to pay $388 million in damages for infringing a patent held by anti-piracy software maker Uniloc Inc. It is also appealing that verdict.

The company is also preparing itself for its EU hearing which will decide whether the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows is harming competition. Microsoft will be heard between 3 and 5 June.