Microsoft appeals ban on sale of Word

Software giant Microsoft has appealed against a decision made by a Texas judge to ban the sale of its Word software due to a patent violation.

If left undisturbed, the district court’s injunction will inflict irreparable harm on Microsoft by potentially keeping the centerpiece of its product line out of the market for months,” Microsoft said in a filing with the US Court of Appeals in Washington DC

Judge Leonard Davis last week ruled that the Word software infringes on a patent held by Canadian software company i4i in relation to a type of decoding technology.

The original complaint failed against Microsoft read that the company violated the patent “by making, using, selling, offering to sell, and/or importing in or into the United States, without authority, Word 2003, Word 2007, .Net Framework, and Windows Vista”.

The Microsoft Office suite, which includes the Word software, accounts for over $US3 billion in sales worldwide for the company.