14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft managed to dodge, even if only temporarily, an injunction that prevented it from selling one of the major components of the Office System due to a patent infringement case filed by i4i Inc. In the first half of August, 2009, Judge Leonard Davis, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ordered the Redmond-based company to stop selling Word no later than 60 days after the permanent injunction was issued on August 11th. The software giant noted at the time that it was working on an appeal, and in the meantime, got the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to grant it a motion for a stay, pending appeal.
In this regard, Microsoft will continue to be able to sell Office Word 2003 and 2007, and is moving forward with the appeal designed to overturn the Texas judge's ruling that it willfully infringed a patent owned by held by i4i. A small Canadian company, i4i was granted a patent on a method for processing custom XML. What got Microsoft in trouble are the capabilities associated with Word, permitting the software to open .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML.
Along with the permanent injunction of selling Word in its current form, Microsoft was also ordered to pay total damages and interest of more than $290 million to i4i. The motion for stay grants the Redmond-based company a tad of breathing room. Essentially, the company can continue to sell Word until the appeal process ends.
On the other side of the IP infringement barricade, i4i is out to draw blood, and is warning Microsoft that although running is a valid option, hiding is one thing that it won’t be able to do. "To paraphrase the great heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, 'they can run, but they can't hide'. Microsoft's time will eventually run out," Loudon Owen, Chairman of i4i, Plaintiff, commented on Microsoft’s Emergency Motion seeking additional time to overhaul the Office System and the Word component in order to comply with the Texas’ judge court order.
"Defendant-Appellant Microsoft claims it may have to stop distributing Word and Office in the U.S. market until it can redesign both products. Microsoft's scare tactics about the consequences of the injunction cannot shield it from the imminent review of the case by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeal on the September 23 appeal." Owen added that "i4i is confident that the Final Judgment in favor of i4i, which included a finding of willful patent infringement by Microsoft and an injunction against Microsoft Word, was the correct decision and that i4i will prevail on the appeal."