i4i

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office confirmed i4i's patent, sending another blow to Microsoft's legal strategy.

Microsoft's court loss to i4i LP has spawned a make-shift tool to check for patent-infringing technology in Word files.

Standards Blog: "Yesterday a very small company won a very big victory against a very large software vendor.

The small company is i4i, a Canadian company that claimed that the large company had not infringed its patent accidentally, but knowingly and willfully, after engaging in discussions relating to the very same technology in question."

Lawyers for Microsoft and Toronto-based i4i LP concluded oral arguments before the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.

Groklaw: "They will say their businesses will be deleteriously affected if they can't ship Word, and the world as we know it will halt if the judge doesn't turn this around and block the injunction at least until the appeal can be heard."