Microsoft Word can still be sold

Microsoft have secured an overturn of a previous ruling in the US courts that would have prevented it from selling Word, the popular text program in its Microsoft Office suite.

Company i4i had argued that it filed a patent in 1998 on use of XML for formatting documents, and that Microsift’s use of XML in Word 2007 violated this patent.

A court in Texas agreed, ruling on August 12th that Microsoft should not only pay i4i $290m in damages, but also stop selling Word.

While it would have been surprising if Microsoft would have had to withdraw Word from sale altogether, it has only secured a stay of execution – for the time being.

A judge agreed today to stay the injunction and Microsoft have also asked for the case to be put on a fast track so its appeal could be heard quickly.