Microsoft on Wednesday issued a patch for its Word program to comply with a court ruling today that it infringed on patents relating to the use of XML or extensible markup language in its flagship word processing software, according to dpa. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word programs containing the infringing code from January 11, 2010. It also upheld jury-imposed damages of 290 million dollars. The ruling came in an appeal by Microsoft against a Texas jury verdict last August that found Microsoft had violated patents owned by Canadian software company i4i Inc. "A small company was practicing its patent, only to suffer a loss of market share, brand recognition and customer goodwill as the result of the defendant"s infringing acts," the three-judge panel said in court documents. "The district court found that Microsoft captured 80 per cent of the custom XML market with its infringing Word products, forcing i4i to change its business strategy." The patch was made available to computer makers to install on new machines preloaded with the Word software and strips Word and other Office programs of custom XML editing capabilities which is used by companies to link their data to Word documents. "With respect to Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007, we have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction," Microsoft said in a statement. "Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for US sale and distribution by the injunction date," Microsoft said. Microsoft Office, which includes Word, PowerPoint, and Excel is used by millions of businesses and consumers and accounted for more than 3 billion dollars in worldwide sales in Microsoft"s most recent fiscal year.
