Patent suit

Toronto-based technology provider i4i has been granted a permanent injunction against software giant Microsoft and won total damages and interest of more than $290m (£175m) in a Texas patent-infringement lawsuit.

The injunction was signed by Judge Leonard Davis of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division.

The ruling follows a 20 May 2009 verdict of $200m after jurors found that Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft wilfully infringed an i4i patent covering a document system that relies on the XML custom formatting function.

During the trial, attorneys successfully argued that Microsoft infringed an i4i patent issued in 1998 that covers software designed to manipulate 'document architecture and content'.

The software covered by the patent removed the need for individual, manually embedded command codes to control text formatting in electronic documents.

Judge Davis ruled that Microsoft should pay i4i an additional $40m for its wilful infringement of the i4i patent.

Microsoft was also ordered to pay slightly more than $37m in prejudgment interest, including an additional $21,102 per day until a final judgment is reached in the case.

The court also ordered Microsoft to pay $144,060 per day until the date of the final judgment for post-verdict damages.

The permanent injunction prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the US any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML.

The court is requiring Microsoft to comply with the injunction within 60 days.