By The Associated Press
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit says Microsoft Corp. can keep selling its Word desktop software as it appeals an unfavourable patent ruling.
In May, a Texas district court said some versions of Microsoft's word processing software infringe on a Canadian technology company's patent.
The dispute is over the way Word 2003 and Word 2007 let users customize document encoding.
The Texas judge had ordered Microsoft to pay Toronto-based i4i LLP US$290 million and stop selling infringing versions of Word by the middle of October.
Redmond-based Microsoft has appealed the ruling and is set to present arguments on Sept. 23.
The head of i4i LLP predicted late Thursday that his company will ultimately win the legal battle despite Thursday's ruling in favour of Microsoft.
"To paraphrase the great heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, 'they can run, but they can't hide'. Microsoft's time will eventually run out," Loudon Owen, chairman of i4i said in a statement issued late Thursday.