Microsoft has been granted a stay that will allow it to keep selling copies of Word even though a
federal court recently ordered an injunction.
According to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Microsoft met necessary requirements to receive a stay of the injunction. Microsoft is facing legal pressure because of a possible breach of a patent owned by i4i Ltd., a small Canadian software company that used to work with Microsoft.
Furthermore, the company has until Oct. 10 to comply with the court's order, but Microsoft has already said there is no way that deadline cannot be reached. The legal stay will allow Microsoft to have more time to prepare an official appeal in the legal case.
i4i believes the 2003 and 2007 versions of Word are using XML technology that could violate patents it has rights to.
Betanews makes the following point:
The original plaintiff in this case, one-time Microsoft partner i4i, defends its patent for separating markup from content in the context of the market it serves: the pharmaceutical industry. Microsoft's arguments, judging from the appeal, will very likely include that i4i cannot claim patent legitimacy for a limited application of a concept that very obviously existed prior to the filing -- a bit like patenting the idea of driving a car to a hospital.
I'm still not sure what to make of this legal case, because the exact details of the questionable patent violations remain unknown. Only time will tell what legal options Microsoft has in this case, with legal proceedings expected to run into 2010.
