Court Affirms Injunction Against Microsoft
A federal appeals court on Tuesday affirmed a $290 million patent-infringement judgment that will bar Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) from selling current versions of its flagship Word software.
Microsoft said it has been preparing modified versions of the affected programs that should be ready when the injunction goes into effect on Jan. 11, allowing sales to continue without interruption. The company also indicated the ruling shouldn’t affect its highly anticipated Office 2010 software, due out next year. It also doesn’t affect copies of Word that have already been sold.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a ruling in a case brought by i4i Inc., a Toronto-based technology company that convinced a Texas jury last May that recent versions of Microsoft Word infringed a company software patent that deals with manipulating the architecture of a document.
