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Seattlest Pix 09Nov25
Can't Miss It: Thanksgiving Eve
After years of swatting away (or paying up) those pesky patent infringement cases, Microsoft finally got stung by the court system.
On Tuesday, a U.S. District Court judge in Texas ruled in the favor of the plaintiff i4i Inc., a Toronto-based company, saying Microsoft violated their patented method of reading XML files.
Besides ordering Microsoft to pay i4i Inc.$290 million in damages, the judge hit 'em where it counts and placed a permanent injunction on their beloved moneymaker Microsoft Word.
The injunction states that in 60 days, all Microsoft Word products that have the capability to open .XML, .DOCX, or .DOCM files can no longer be sold, marketed, tested, or imported to the U.S.
Microsoft is certainly appealing the decision.
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I've no love for Microsoft but that is the king of all bullshit patents.
And it would have ramifications not just for Word but for OpenOffice as well as any HTML editor made in the past six years or even further, and perhaps even web browsers themselves.
As mentioned in the comments on the Seattle PI post, but not in the Seattlest post, this is from the East Texas court system which is known for supporting frivolous patent litigation. The i4i lawsuit is so inane, giving them so much attention is more credit than they are due.