Microsoft to Continue Shipping Word Pending Appeal

By PCMAG

Microsoft Word lives on – for now.

A federal appeals court on Thursday granted the software giant a stay of an injunction that required Microsoft to stop production of Word.

On Aug. 11, a District Court in Texas handed down a $290 million judgment against the software giant and ordered the company to remove Word from the market within 60 days because it violated a patent held by i4i.

Microsoft promptly filed an appeal and requested that the injunction be delayed pending appeal. The Federal Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit agreed, and the two sides will meet again in court on September 23.

Loudon Owen, chairman of i4i, accused Microsoft of using scare tactics in order to continue its distribution of Word. Owen "is confident that the Final Judgment in favor of i4i, which included a finding of willful patent infringement by Microsoft and an injunction against Microsoft Word, was the correct decision and that i4i will prevail on the appeal," he said in a statement.

"Microsoft's time will eventually run out," Owen concluded.

In its formal appeal, Microsoft argued that stopping the shipment of Word would cause it and its distributors irreparable harm, but a stay pending appeal would not significantly harm i4i.

The judgment is baseless, Microsoft argued in its appeal, for four reasons: Microsoft is likely to succeed on the merits because the district court committed legal errors; Microsoft will be irreparably injured by an injunction that has the potential to remove its flagship product from the market for months; i4i, whose main product is an add-on to Word, will not be injured by a stay pending appeal; and the public will face hardship if Word and Office are absent from the market for any period.