Microsoft Hit With Patent Infringement

A Texas federal jury has ordered Microsoft to pay $200 million to a Canadian company for patent infringement.

"We’re very pleased," said Karen Heater, president of Toronto-based i4i, which said Microsoft had violated a patent held by her company in its Word processing programs.

"The jury heard extensive testimony, extensive evidence and they concluded — as we expected they would — that Microsoft indeed infringed," she told AFP. "It’s been a long, drawn out process and we fell quite vindicated."

Microsoft said it plans to appeal the verdict and that the award was unsupported.

"We are disappointed by the jury’s verdict," said David Bowermaster, a Microsoft spokesman.

"We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid," he said. "We believe this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported, so we will ask the court to overturn the verdict."

In April, Microsoft was ordered to pay $388 million in damages for infringing a patent held by anti-piracy software maker Uniloc. The company is also appealing that verdict.