Patent Infringement to Cost Microsoft $290m

Software giant, Microsoft has been denied an appeal by the US Supreme Court, and has subsequently been asked to cough up a fine of a whopping $290m for infringing a patent belonging to i4i, a small-time company based in Canada.

Sued..

i4i sued Microsoft on grounds of infringement in 2007. The patent in question pertains to a text manipulation tool, which Microsoft employs in its Word application. The technique has been doing really well on Microsoft’s Word applications (version 2003 and 2007). During a latest hearing of this case, Microsoft’s appeal was declined, and the court ordered the software giant to stall the sale of the versions of Word that contained the infringed patent.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has been making claims that the judgment requires to be revised, since it used a higher standard of proof. The judgment currently favors i4i, and Microsoft stands liable for the penalty. 

Source: BBC News