Toronto, ON-based i4i has been awarded more than $290 million and a permanent injunction in a patent infringement lawsuit brought against Microsoft with regards to technology used in Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007.

The patent No. 5,787,449 refers to custom XML, and a particular "Method and System for Manipulating the Architecture and the Content of a Document Separately from Each Other." i4i LP, which invented this technology, filed suit against Microsoft in March 2007, stating that the software giant was infringing on its technology by utilizing it in certain Word products, and argued that this infringement was "willful". Microsoft disputed the claim, and stated that the patent was invalid.

Today's verdict upholds a previous judgment made on May 20 of this year. In addition to the monetary recuperation, there is now a permanent injunction against Microsoft for custom XML in Word 2003 and 2007. The company is now prevented from selling, offering to sell, and/or importing in or into the U.S. any infringing and future Word products that have the capability of opening a .XML, .DOCX, or .DOCM file containing custom XML, and from using any infringing and future Word products to open an XML file containing custom XML. The injunction does not, however, apply to any actions where there's a custom transform that will remove all custom XML elements. The injunction takes effect within 60 days.

"We are very pleased with the terms of the final judgment," enthuses Michel Vulpe, Founder of i4i and inventor of the patent. "We feel vindicated with this result. i4i will do its utmost to support custom XML users, which is particularly important to implement the ISO 29500 OOXML standard. "

"This judgment," adds Michael Cannata, Director of i4i LP and advisor to the Northwater Intellectual Property Fund, "demonstrates how a specialized fund can bring capital and patent litigation management expertise to a company with an important patented invention to help it level the playing field when enforcing its rights against a much larger Corporation."

Patent number 5,787,449 was issued by the United States Patent Office in 1998.

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