The US Court of Appeals has granted Microsoft's request to
postpone
an injunction banning the software company selling its word
processing application, Microsoft Word.
The postponement comes after Hewlett-Packard and Dell also
requested the ban be reconsidered or its implementation delayed,
according to
media reports.
Earlier this month, a Texas district court fined Microsoft $290m
and filed the injunction for infinging
Canadian firm I4i's patents, relating to the use of Extensible
Markup Language (XML) documents.
If enforced, the injunction would prevent Microsoft from selling
and importing into the US any infringing and future Word products
that have the capability of opening an .xml file.
The Texas court action followed a case earlier this year in
which a a jury awarded I4i $200m in damages from Microsoft for
breaching patents by using XML technology for key features in the
2003 and 2007 versions of Microsoft Word.
The ban was set to begin on 10 October, but the postponement
should allow Microsoft to carry on trading in the end of year
season. However, the ban could still be enforced after a federal
review of the case.
If the injunction is enforced, Microsoft will have to develop a
workaround that avoids using the disputed technology or strip the
capability from the products.
Microsoft said it was pleased with the appeals court
postponement. The company said it was preparing to present its case
at the next hearing on 23 September.