Microsoft Prohibited From Selling MS Word Starting January 11

December 22, 2009

Starting January 11, 2010, Microsoft will be prohibited from selling Microsoft Word as a federal court upheld an original ruling that the Information Technology giant was in violation of patent laws.

In August this year, a court sided with i4i, a Canadian IT company that holds a 1998 patent on the way XML language is implemented, and issued a permanent injunction that bars Microsoft from selling MS Word products due to patent infringement.

Microsoft is also ordered to pay $290 million in damages to i4i for all the copies it has already sold.

The conflict started when Microsoft used XML as a default file system beginning with Microsoft Word 2007 and the new “,docx” formats.

i4i filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in 2007 when the company began offering a similar feature out of the box.

This recent development is expected to have an impact especially on retail stores who sell copies of the software and computer manufacturers who bundle Microsoft Office on the computers they sell.

Microsoft has promised a solution, which hopefully will be in effect before January 11.

Those who already own copies of Microsoft Word will continue to be able use the software and Microsoft will be allowed to continue supporting these copies.