Rich Fiscus
2 Apr 2010 4:16
Microsoft's latest appeal of a $290 million patent infringement judgement over XML editing in Word has been rejected by a federal appeals court.
They were requesting that all 11 judges sitting on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit review the case. The appeal has already been denied by a panel of 3 judges.
Loudon Owen, Chairman of i4i, called the decision, "a powerful reinforcement of the message that smaller enterprises and inventors who own intellectual property can and will be protected."
Despite Microsoft's apparent prior knowledge of the patent, held by a Canadian firm called i4i, the judgement against them seems generous to say the least.
The award was based on the number of users estimated to have used Word for editing XML documents, which seems reasonable. The problem is the valuation of the feature, which was set at $98 per copy.
Even if you were to buy Word by itself you wouldn't pay more than $230. If you get it bundled in one of the many versions of the Microsoft Office suite, as most Word users do, it amounts to no more than about $100 of the total price.
Microsoft can still attempt another appeal to the same court or ask the Supreme Court to hear the case.