Redmond (ip-192.com): Microsoft can continue selling its Word software after it overturned a ban imposed by a Texan court after a patent dispute.
Under the ruling Microsoft was ordered to pay Canadian patent owner i4i $290m damages and stop the sales of Word, starting in mid-October.
I4i's patent was filed in 1998 and outlines ways for "manipulating the architecture and the content of a document separately from each other" and invokes XML (Extensible Markup Language) as a way to let people format text documents.
XML is a formatting system that preserves the structure of information, such as that in a spreadsheet, as it is handled by different programs.
After the court ruling, Microsoft filed a request to stay the injunction and also asked for the case to be put on a fast track so its appeal could be heard quickly.
The US court said Microsoft had met the conditions needed to grant the stay. Arguments in Microsoft's appeal against the earlier ruling are due to be heard on 23 September.
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