Microsoft Asks Court to Halt Ban on Word Sales

Microsoft said on Tuesday it filed a motion to stay an injunction imposed by a federal court last week which threatened to halt sales of some versions of its popular Word application.

In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) also asked for an expedited review of its appeal against the ruling, which determined that Microsoft was in breach of a patent held by a small Canadian software firm.

On Aug. 12, a U.S. district court in Texas ruled in favor of i4i in its long-running patent dispute against Microsoft, slapping more than $290 million in damages on Microsoft and issuing an injunction preventing the world’s top software company from selling versions of Word that contain the disputed patent technology.

The patent in question relates to the use of XML, or extensible markup language, in the 2003 and 2007 versions of Word. The injunction is set to take effect in 60 days from the ruling.

“These filings are not unusual in patent cases,” said Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz on Tuesday, referring to the motion to stay and request for an expedited appeal process. “We believe the evidence clearly demonstrates that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid.”