Microsoft Loses i4i Appeal over MS Word: $290 Million. Ouch.

by Truemorist | December 23, 2009 at 10:12 am

281 views | 2 Recommendations | 0 comments

Microsoft lost its appeal against i4i, the plucky Canadian firm that sued Microsoft for $290 million for infringing its precious, precious patent. Microsoft has until January 11, 2010 to either fix Word to correct the patent infringement or stop selling it. However, Microsoft won't have to stop selling itsubiquitous, bloated word-processing (and document-destroying) software, since it's working on an update that will work around the patent infringement. If stores want to have a Microsoft Office product-smashing party, that's their call, but it most likely won't be legally necessary.

The lawsuit hinges around a feature that most of us will never, ever use: the creation of custom XML documents. Usually, the only time you actually see XML is when you try to paste something from Word directly into a webform, like, oh, say, a NowPublic story detail page. I hate that.

The trio of judges on the appeals court panel stated "A small company was practicing its patent, only to suffer a loss of market share, brand recognition, and customer goodwill as the result of the defendant's infringing acts," adding "The district court found that Microsoft captured 80 percent of the custom XML market with its infringing Word products, forcing i4i to change its business strategy."

The patent itself, for the creation of custom XML documents, seemed like an afterthought, and for good reason: The average user never has and never will use Word for this purpose.

It would be easiest for Microsoft to just license i4i's technology, since every time Redmond updates one of their products, an angel dies. Whatever happens, I can't envision a scenario in which the US government actually orders Microsoft to stop selling and supporting Word, because it's (sorry) "too big to fail": government agencies use Word, after all.