U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis has ordered Microsoft to pay nearly $300M in damages and interest to Canadian company i4i. i4i has a patent for a document system that relies on XML (extensible markup language) custom formatting and Microsoft infringed it when they started selling versions of Word from 2007 onwards. Microsoft famously introduced the XML file formats in Word 2007 (the ‘x’ in the .docx file extension stands for XML).

The injunction that stops Microsoft from selling Word products that let people create custom XML documents in the U.S will be enforced from October 10th onwards. In addition to the $200 million in damages awarded by the jury for infringing the i4i patent, the following amounts are due:

• $40 million in “enhanced damages” for Microsoft’s “willful infringement”;
• $11.8 million in post-verdict damages, calculated from the May jury verdict through yesterday;
• $38.8 million in pre-judgment interest.

If the ruling stands, this will make life difficult for Microsoft. However, legal appeals or technical work-arounds make an actual halt of sales unlikely. Microsoft could potentially strip the functionality from Word. According to Microsoft company spokesman Kevin Kutz,

We are disappointed by the court’s ruling. We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid. We will appeal the verdict.

Davis’ injunction bars Microsoft from selling

Word 2003, Word 2007 and Microsoft Word products not more than colorably different from Word 2003 or Word 2007

as well as

any Infringing and Future Word products that have the capability of opening a .XML, .DOCX or .DOCM file containing custom XML

Loudon Owen, a spokesman for i4i said

Custom XML allows people to create forms or templates such that words in certain fields are tagged and then can be managed in a database

i4i’s patent covers technology that lets end users manipulate document architecture and content.

Tags | lawsuit, xml