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US court oks $US290m Microsoft verdict
A US federal appeals court overnight affirmed a $US290 million patent infringement judgment against Microsoft and reinstated an injunction that bars the company from selling current versions of its flagship Word software.
Microsoft had said in court papers that the injunction would prohibit it from selling all currently available versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office. The injunction also could require the software giant to make significant changes to a new version of Word, due in 2010.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the injunction will go into effect on January 11.
The ruling by the Federal Circuit affirmed an August trial court victory for Toronto technology company i4i Inc., which convinced a Texas jury that recent versions of Microsoft Word infringed a company software patent that deals with manipulating the architecture of a document.
After the jury verdict, US District Court Judge Leonard Davis issued a permanent injunction that barred Microsoft from selling Word 2003 and Word 2007, which use a technology called "Custom XML" that is used to classify documents for retrieval by computers. Judge Davis also ordered Microsoft to pay more than $US290 million in penalties.
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The Federal Circuit overnight rejected Microsoft's multi-pronged attack against i4i's patent, the $US290 million judgment and the permanent injunction.
The appeals court ruled that i4i's patent was valid and said there was sufficient evidence for a jury to rule that Microsoft infringed it. The court also said Judge Davis did not abuse his discretion by imposing the injunction against the software giant.
The Federal Circuit had temporarily stayed the injunction while it considered the case. Judge Davis had given Microsoft 60 days from his August ruling to comply with the injunction. The appeals court, however, changed the effective date to January 11 because it said Microsoft had presented evidence that it needed more time to comply.
The injunction does not affect copies of Word that have already been sold, meaning that current users still will be able to operate Word fully and receive technical support from Microsoft.
Neither Microsoft nor i4i was immediately available for comment.
Shame On Apple For Not Providing Windows 7 Drivers By Now
Back in 2006/2007, Windows Vista momentum ground to a halt partially because Microsoft's partner ecosystem wasn't ready with the necessary hardware drivers. For Windows 7, however, this hasn't been an issue at all. In fact, the only major vendor not to support Windows 7 with their current products is ... Apple.
Previously, Apple promised to provide Windows 7 drivers through its Boot Camp utility, which lets Mac OS X users dual boot between that OS and Windows, by the end of 2009. So they're late. But these drivers can and should have been delivered to customers when Windows 7 shipped, in October. I guess the company was too busy fixing a widely-reported user data deletion issue in Snow Leopard to bother supporting a competing system that just works.
So thanks for nothing Apple. We know you're scared of Windows 7, but come on.
Check it out at SuperSite