Microsoft allowed to keep selling Word... for now

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 4 Sep 2009 at 07:34

The US Court of Appeals has granted Microsoft's request to stay an injunction that would have halted sales of some versions of its ubiquitous Word software.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit says Microsoft has met the requirements to merit a stay of the injunction.

Microsoft asked for the stay two weeks ago, as it requested an expedited review of its appeal against a court ruling last month that found Microsoft was in breach of a patent held by a small Canadian software firm.

The Court of Appeals granted the request for an expedited review and will hear arguments on the case on 23 September.

On 12 August, a US district court in Texas ruled in favour of i4i Ltd in a long-running dispute against Microsoft, slapping more than $290 million in damages on Microsoft and issuing an injunction preventing the world's top software company from selling versions of Word that contain the disputed patent technology.

The patent in question relates to the use of XML in the 2003 and 2007 versions of Word. The injunction was set to take effect in 60 days from the ruling, which would have been mid-October.

"We are happy with the result and look forward to presenting our arguments on the main issues on 23 September," says Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz.

A representative for i4i was not immediately available for comment.

Microsoft has been highly critical of the original judgement. In papers released last week, the company claimed the Texas district court had allowed the case to "run amok" and had subsequently overseen a "miscarriage of justice".