Microsoft sued $290 million

10.6.11

A software and designing company based in Canada called i4i sued Microsoft back in 2007, alleging that the creator of various Windows operating system have without permission, used an editing tool patented by their company.

It is believed that i4i's program was used in Microsoft word processing application, Word 2003 and 2007 that infringes patent relating to i4i's text manipulation software.

Microsoft filed an appeal but on Thursday, lost in the Supreme Court by a conclusive 8-0 vote. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said federal law clearly states patents granted by the U.S. Patent Office are presumed valid and the court ordered Microsoft to pay $290 million to i4i which is still unpaid and with interest, are expected to rise above $300 million.

Google, Apple, Yahoo, Cisco and Intel backed up Microsoft's case by stating that is often impossible to determine whether a software program is patented, since programmers can and do quickly build new programs based on existing knowledge.

Microsoft's share price dipped when the decision was announced but quickly recovered and was little changed at $23.93 in afternoon business trade.

Microsoft have issued a statement, saying it "would continue to advocate for changes to the law."

33 comments:

Dootzkie said...

A few hundred million?
That's pocket change for them :D
And with Google, Apple, Yahoo, Cisco and Intel backing them...

Cmon...

chika said...

Not surprised, MS is known for ripping on codes.
But as I can see, they are not under buying it as they see a potential like before.

logo mess said...

i4i , great job , microsoft is such an thief hiding all their thefts in closed sources, nah dont like this company ;)

Apache said...

Another day, another fine for Microsoft. I'm surprised all the other companies backed Microsoft.

Alice said...

And then they went back to churning money as if nothing happened.

HOODPHENOMENOM said...

Microsoft is sued once a week I guess !

BojanCo said...

Not suprised, they are known for stealing intelectual property! Nice post, keep it up!

A Beer for the Shower said...

All that expendable cash nd yet they can't seem to build a laptop whose CD drive lives for more than two years.

Finding Cheap Homes said...

Its a good think Microsoft doesn't sue people!

non-observant said...

What's really scary is 290M isn't that much for them.

minecraft129 said...

Haha, Microsoft loses 2 pennies out of its billions...

Oh_B_City said...

Wow that's quite the sum of money! But it's still not even a dent in their budget =/

bmx4130 said...

It's crazy to think how that much money is just a drop in the bucket of their overall worth.

Kunta Jay said...

Whoa.

Anonymous said...

its nothing to mycrosoft xD

Catherine said...

But if it's not a dent in their budget, why not just pay it?
Or better yet, why not be honest in their dealings?

Oh wait, let me take off my rose sunglasses.

The Hammer said...

This is pretty big news in Toronto

Zed said...

I'm pretty sure they didn't break a sweat paying that

animestan said...

Common, every big company is getting sued for one thing or another.

Unknown said...

Nice info men.
And btw, nice blog. :)

BigOryx said...

$290 million?
not much for Microsoft! D:

Xenototh said...

In other words, microsoft lost next to nothing, the software isn't in 2010, and we will probably forget about this in a week. :P

Gravix said...

Too bad nothing will actually happen to Microsoft

pv said...

this is typical stuff in the corporate arena

Doc_Waffles said...

Hmm, strange. Oh well that's not a lot for them i guess.

Anonymous said...

Man, when doesn't Microsoft get sued?

Terminally Ill said...

SIQ POST BRO!!!!

Moobeat said...

i'm sure that will hurt them..

psychpost said...

damn, small bump for them

Jon said...

doesn't microsoft make like 290 million a week?

Elliot MacLeod-Michael said...

chump change. it's probably a bogus suit though, really, and the law probably should be changed.
+followed

Unknown said...

Yes please allow Microsoft to fish out its coin purse...

Mile2Marathon said...

8-0 vote wow no chance!

Post a Comment

Hits





Labels

Friends

Powered by Blogger.

Popular Posts

Promote Your Blog Blogged.my Ping your blog, website, or RSS feed for Free