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:
A few hundred million?
That's pocket change for them :D
And with Google, Apple, Yahoo, Cisco and Intel backing them...
Cmon...
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.
i4i , great job , microsoft is such an thief hiding all their thefts in closed sources, nah dont like this company ;)
Another day, another fine for Microsoft. I'm surprised all the other companies backed Microsoft.
And then they went back to churning money as if nothing happened.
Microsoft is sued once a week I guess !
Not suprised, they are known for stealing intelectual property! Nice post, keep it up!
All that expendable cash nd yet they can't seem to build a laptop whose CD drive lives for more than two years.
Its a good think Microsoft doesn't sue people!
What's really scary is 290M isn't that much for them.
Haha, Microsoft loses 2 pennies out of its billions...
Wow that's quite the sum of money! But it's still not even a dent in their budget =/
It's crazy to think how that much money is just a drop in the bucket of their overall worth.
Whoa.
its nothing to mycrosoft xD
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.
This is pretty big news in Toronto
I'm pretty sure they didn't break a sweat paying that
Common, every big company is getting sued for one thing or another.
Nice info men.
And btw, nice blog. :)
$290 million?
not much for Microsoft! D:
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
Too bad nothing will actually happen to Microsoft
this is typical stuff in the corporate arena
Hmm, strange. Oh well that's not a lot for them i guess.
Man, when doesn't Microsoft get sued?
SIQ POST BRO!!!!
i'm sure that will hurt them..
damn, small bump for them
doesn't microsoft make like 290 million a week?
chump change. it's probably a bogus suit though, really, and the law probably should be changed.
+followed
Yes please allow Microsoft to fish out its coin purse...
8-0 vote wow no chance!
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