Microsoft Ordered to Change Word Software Code

A federal appeals court ordered Microsoft Corp. to pay a Canadian software company $290 million for violating a patent, upholding the decision of a lower court.

Beginning Jan. 11, Microsoft has to stop selling versions of Microsoft Word that infringe on the patent. Microsoft says it will offer a new version with the computer code in question removed. Copies of Word sold before Jan. 11 aren’t affected by the court’s decision.

Microsoft investors weren’t fazed, and its stock moved higher. But Loudon Owen, the chairman of Toronto-based i4i Inc., which had sued Microsoft over the patent, called the decision “a vindication for i4i and a war cry for talented inventors whose patents are infringed.”

12/22/2009 2:44 PM The Associated Press