A small Canadian company, Infrastructures for Information Inc. (i4i), won a significant damage award earlier this year in its patent infringement fight wth Microsoft.  The lawsuit claimed that MS Word 2003 and Word 2007 contained custom XML tagging features that infringed the Canadian company’s patent.  Although the jury found in favour of i4i in May to the tune of $200 million, the heat was turned up this week when a U.S. judge added $40 million to the damages for Microsoft’s “willful infringement”, along with pre-judgment interest of $37 million. To top it off, the Court also issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Microsoft from selling its flagship Word program in the US. Microsoft has 60 days to comply with the injunction.  Not surprisingly, Microsoft has announced plans to appeal the ruling.

 

Calgary – 09:45 MST