Microsoft got sued by l4i a torronto company for patent infringement

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it will tweak its Word application to remove a feature judged to be a breach of patent, ensuring that it will be able to continue selling one of its most widely used programs.


The world’s largest software company made the announcement shortly after a U.S. court of appeals upheld a $290 million jury verdict against it for infringing a patent held by a small Canadian software firm(L4i).


Microsoft said it is taking steps to remove the feature from Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 put on sale from that date.


The disputed patent feature relates to the use of XML, or extensible markup language, used for manipulating text, in the 2007 versions of Word. Microsoft described it on Tuesday as a “little-used feature”.


“I4i is especially pleased with the court’s decision to uphold the injunction, an important step in protecting the property rights of small inventors,” said Michel Vulpe, founder and co-inventor of i4i, in a statement.