Federal Circuit Rejects Microsoft’s Patent Appeal

(CN) - The Federal Circuit on Thursday denied Microsoft's request for a rehearing on its protracted patent dispute with a small, Toronto-based technology company. The world's largest software company has been tangling with i4i Ltd. over a Microsoft Word feature for the past three years.

In August, U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis ruled that Microsoft infringed on patents owned by i4i and fined Microsoft $290 million. He also banned Microsoft from selling Word in the United States.

Microsoft appealed, and the Federal Circuit temporarily lifted the ban in September. In December, the appeals panel rejected Microsoft's arguments.

Microsoft asked in January for a rehearing by all 11 judges of the circuit. That court rejected the request on Thursday.

In its complaint, i4i claimed that the 2003 and 2007 versions of Word violated a patent tied to XML, or Extensible Markup Language, which allows computers to interpret and display text.

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