Latest Microsoft Patent Describes Method of Losing Patent Infringement Suits

2009 is proving to be a year of dubious distinction for Microsoft in patent litigation. On Wednesday the company was ordered to pay $290 million to Toronto-based i4i for willfully infringing its patents. Seems Microsoft used some of i4i’s XML technology in Word 2003 and, though it was apprised of its violation, used it in Word 2007 as well. Said i4i lawyer Douglas Cawley: “E-mails from Microsoft show they knew about the patent and infringed to make i4i products obsolete.”

The $290 million verdict is the second-largest patent jury award this year, the largest of all–coincidentally, I’m sure–being the $388 million verdict against Microsoft won by Singapore’s Uniloc in April over an infringement of its security technology. Then, as in the i4i case and most other patent rulings that haven’t gone its way, Redmond responded with incredulity, claiming it couldn’t have possibly infringed on the patent because the patent is invalid. “We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid,” said David Bowermaster, a Microsoft spokesman, in the company’s now boilerplate statement on such matters. “We believe this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported, so we will ask the court to overturn the verdict.”