A Texan court has requested that Microsoft stops selling its popular word-processing software in the United States, claiming that the software giant is guilty of infringing patents owned by a company called i4i.
Toronto-based i4i claims that Microsoft "willingly violated" a 1998 patent regarding methods for reading XML.
The Canadian company has won an injunction against Microsoft regarding the patent, which "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML".
60 days to comply
Microsoft has been given 60 days to comply, according to Seattle PI, with Texan Judge Leonard Davis ordering the software giant to pay $290 million (£176 million) in damages, which includes $40 million (£25 million) for the wilful infringement of the patent, $37 million (£23 million) in pre-judgement interest, and $21,102 (£13,000) each day until final judgement is reached.
Microsoft spokesperson Kevin Kutz has said the company is "disappointed by the court's ruling," and believes "the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid."
TechRadar has contacted Microsoft in the UK and we expect to receive an updated statement on the matter later today.
