You can’t win ’em all, even if you’re Microsoft. The software giant has suffered another setback in its effort to convince a court to overturn a patent-infringement verdict against the company at the hands of i4i, a tiny Toronto firm that is asserting its patent on a “custom XML” editor.
Microsoft was hit with $290 million in penalties and fines, and was required to yank versions of Word and Office that contained the infringing feature from the market. The company says it is mulling its next steps.
Datamation has the details on the case.
A federal appeals court declined Microsoft’s petition for the entire court to rehear its appeal of a king-sized patent infringement verdict that went against the software firm last year.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) already had lost its appeal to a three-judge panel of the appeals court late last year in a challenge to the case brought by tiny Toronto firm I4i.
Now, its request for the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to rehear its appeal “en banc” — meaning all of the judges in that appeals court would hear the case together — has been turned down.
What Microsoft will do now is open to speculation, but it appears the company may appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
