Microsoft: Losing Word?

How tiny Canadian firm i4i could force Microsoft Word off U.S. shelves through a Texas court

Talk about a “David and Goliath victory,” said Matt Hartley and Barry Critchley in Canada’s National Post. “Tiny Canadian company” i4i Inc. has taken software giant Microsoft down a notch, winning $230 million in damages in a U.S. patent-infringement case and, more painfully, getting a permanent injunction against Microsoft selling Word in the U.S. The loss of its “iconic” word processor would cost Microsoft billions a year.

“We’re not smart enough” to understand all the details of U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis’ ruling, said Ashby Jones in The Wall Street Journal, but the “long and short” of the ruling is that Microsoft has 60 days to either pull Word 2003 and Word 2007 from the shelves, or tweak the software so it doesn’t rely on i4i’s XML architecture.

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