Federal Appeals Court Issues Injunction Against Sale of MS Word 2007

From DailyTech: A U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a $290 million judgment against Microsoft Corporation in a patent case launched by i4i Inc, a small Toronto-based company. The Court has issued an injunction against any and all sales of Microsoft's Word 2007 software, including the popular Office 2007.

The injunction takes effect in the U.S. on January 11. Therefore, all copies of the software sold before this date are not affected.

Microsoft quickly issued a prepared statement after the ruling and injunction in order to reassure consumers:

"With respect to Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007, we have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products. Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction."

Retailers and OEMs will be the groups most affected, as they will have to replace all copies of Word 2007 and Office 2007 on shelves and contained on drive images.

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