“Microsoft Corp suffered a defeat on Thursday when the Supreme Court upheld a record $290 million jury verdict against the software giant for infringing a small Canadian company’s patent,” James Vicini reports for Reuters. “The justices unanimously agreed with a U.S. appeals court ruling that went against the world’s largest software company in its legal battle with Toronto-based i4i.”
“The legal battle began in 2007 when i4i sued Microsoft. A federal jury awarded $290 million to i4i after finding that Microsoft, in 2003 and 2007 versions of Word, its word processing application, had infringed i4i’s patent relating to text manipulation software,” Vicini reports. “A U.S. appeals court upheld the award, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office upheld the validity of the i4i patent.”
“Microsoft continued to dispute those decisions, but removed the contested features from its current software,” Vicini reports. “In appealing to the Supreme Court, Microsoft said it wanted a new trial. But the justices ruled against Microsoft.”
Vicini reports, “The case is not entirely over, however, since Microsoft also has a challenge to the patent pending at the patent office and may have to pay other potential licensing fees, said Michel Vulpe, i4i’s founder and chief technology officer. ‘We’re very pleased that the court did the right thing,’ and that the decision was unanimous, Vulpe told Reuters.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Every bit they blow counts.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Greg” for the heads up.]