BREAKING – Microsoft slapped hard by court: Can’t sell Word

Mark this up in the column of “damn that has got to hurt” but Microsoft lost in a federal appeals court today when a $209 million judgement against the software giant was upheld and an injunction against the sale of their cash cow software package Word was issued.

The injunction is set to go into effect on January 11, 2010 and would stop the sale of all current versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office.

Microsoft had appealed a Texas jury verdict in favor of i4i Inc., a Toronto company. The jury found recent versions of Microsoft Word infringed on a software patent.

Microsoft has said that it and the public will both suffer if Word goes off the market while the company devises a workaround. The court said the decision does not affect copies of the programs sold before the injunction goes into effect, so Microsoft can still provide technical support to the old versions even if they infringe on the patent.

Source: Yahoo News

I have a sneaking feeling that there are some Microsoft lawyers who won’t be seeing any bonuses or time with their families over the holidays.