Court reaffirms i4i’s patent win against Microsoft

The U.S. Federal Court of Appeals has once again upheld a jury’s verdict that Microsoft Corp. willfully infringed on patents awarded to i4i Inc.

The verdict, which the appeals court first affirmed in December, required Microsoft to pay more than US$240 million in damages and forced it to remove a feature in versions of Microsoft Word 2007 starting in January. Microsoft had been charged with infringing a patent owned by i4i with a feature in Word 2003 and 2007 that lets people create custom XML documents.

Microsoft asked the appeals court to reconsider its decision, and on Wednesday the appeals court upheld its previous affirmation of the district court ruling. Much of the latest decision is identical to the December document, except for an expanded explanation of the three-judge panel’s decision to uphold the “willfulness” issue.

“A reasonable jury could have concluded that Microsoft ‘willfully’ infringed the ‘449 patent based on the evidence presented at trial,” the judges wrote. The decision pointed to evidence presented at the trial showing that Microsoft employees attended demonstrations of i4i software and received i4i sales kits that identified the software as patented technology. This piece of evidence and others imply that Microsoft was aware of the i4i patent, the decision says.

(Read up on the chronology of the i4i vs Microsoft story)

“Similarly, there is no evidence Microsoft ever made a good faith effort to avoid infringement; internal emails show Microsoft intended to render i4i’s product ‘obsolete’ and assure ‘there won’t be a need for (i4i’s) product,'” the judges wrote.

The panel will now circulate the document to the rest of the judges on the appeals court, who will decide whether to take up Microsoft’s request for an en banc review. If they do, that would mean that all 12 appeals court judges will reconsider the case.

There is no set time frame for the court to decide if it will accept the en banc request, but Loudon Owen, chairman of i4i, expects the court to decide in the next four to six weeks.

If the judges decide against an en banc review, Microsoft can ask the Supreme Court to hear the case, Owen said.

He was pleased with Wednesday’s decision. “From our perspective, there are only so many more avenues for appeal for them,” he said. “It also resulted in an even more detailed and structured decision in our interest.”

Microsoft did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Featured Articles

Cybersecurity in 2024: Priorities and challenges for Canadian organizations 

By Derek Manky As predictions for 2024 point to the continued expansion...

Survey shows generative AI is a top priority for Canadian corporate leaders.

Leaders are devoting significant budget to generative AI for 2024 Canadian corporate...

Related Tech News

Tech Jobs

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

Tech Companies Hiring Right Now