Microsoft plans to fight $200M patent court order
updated 12:15 pm EDT, Thu May 21, 2009
Microsoft loses $200M case
A Texas federal jury has ordered Microsoft Corp to pay out $200 million in damages to Toronto-based software maker i4i Limited for allegedly infringing a patent, the software giant announced on Wednesday. Microsoft, which is regularly at the receiving end of such lawsuits, went on to say it is planning on appealing the verdict, as it believes the award is unsupported by the evidence.
"The evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid," a Microsoft spokesman said.
The privately-owned i4i, which makes software for manipulating documents, filed its lawsuit in 2007 and claimed Microsoft infringed one of its patents in both its Word document editor as well as in Windows Vista. The patent in question is related to separately manipulating a document's content and architecture, both of which are basic elements of either program.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Well
On one hand, i4i is an actual company (we've used their software previously in a past job).
On the other hand, patenting the ability to change content or structure separately? Isn't that also what every HTML editor does?