A Texas judge banned Microsoft from selling the Microsoft Office program, Word. This came after a Canadian firm, i4i brought a patent infringement case against the software company. The problem centers around the way Microsoft Word handles certain documents.

The Canadian company said that Microsoft “willingly violated” a patent agreement arranged in 1998 concerning methods for reading XML files, a kind of programming language. XML allows users to customize the format of word-processing documents, enabling them to be read by various word-processing programs. The ability to read and write XML is a key feature of Microsoft Word.

Judge Leonard Davis, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ruled that Microsoft had infringed i4i’s patent, and ordered the software giant to pay $290 million (£176 million) in damages. This included $40 million (£25 million) for the willful infringement of the patent, $37 million (£23 million) in pre-judgment interest, and a further $21,102 (£13,000) per day until a final judgment is reached.

(Wow that is a lot of money)

But that is not all he did. He banned Microsoft from selling any Word program that could open XML files or DOCX and DOCM documents in the United States. Microsoft has 60 days to comply.

Microsoft intends to appeal the decision.

“We are disappointed by the court’s ruling,” said Kevin Kutz, a spokesman for the software giant. “We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid.”

Will Microsoft settle this with signing a big fat check or will Microsoft go bankrupt?

References:

1. Picture from: http://www.aqsa.org.uk/

2. Information from: http://mashable.com/ and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/