After news spreading that Microsoft cant sell Word in the US came out,there has been some discussion going on in the US courts has a infringement on a patent owned by i4i.Why this fiasco came into picture was when Word was capable of opening custom XML files (.xml, .docx, or .docm).This follows anti-trust action by the European Union over Windows 7, brought about by the company behind the Opera web browser, that first gave us the ridiculous Windows 7 E edition and now a ballot screen for browsers for every retail copy of Windows in the EU and in addition to that they wont ship EU editions it will be the same version as the rest of the world.

Now the Judge has found them guilty of infringement on a patent owned by i4i.The patent in question refers to Microsoft Word and it’s use of XML, the method of which i4i apparently patented back in 1994 (and had the patent awarded to them in 1998), whereas Microsoft received their patent just last week.Microsoft have been told to pay $200 Million and stop selling Word.

This hefty amount was sought by the company and this might increase based on further investigations.Microsoft was eager to use this software even though they knew it was patented back in 1998.Microsoft will never actually cease to sell Word,i4i can be a real pain in the process. Microsoft could process the XML as plain text, or just remove XML.However,i4i claims that it does not want to keep Word off of the shelves,rather,i4i just wants to force Microsoft to remove or edit products that infringe on their technology indirectly could say,just to mint some money.Microsoft plans to get a stay on the ruling.Will Microsoft pay 200 Million or how’s the process will move on,Time will tell.