Important Patent Ruling: Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the trial court verdict rendered in favor of plaintiff i4i Limited Partnership and against Microsoft Corporation in the amount of $240,000,000. Perhaps more importantly, it upheld the permanent injunction issued against Microsoft barring future sales of Microsoft Word products which contain the infringing "custom XML editor" software. The Fed Circuit set the effective date of the injunction as January 11, 2010. Microsoft obviously has the right to petition the Supreme Court for certiorari, but the issues don't seem sexy enough for Supreme Court interest. The Fed Circuit was reviewing a jury verdict in this case and therefore its review was "limited and deferential". I will report more after review of the Opinion, which is attached.
i4i v. Microsoft Federal Circuit opinion upholding the trial court.pdf (135.29 kb)