Judge orders Microsoft to stop selling Word

By Byron Acohido
USA TODAY
posted August 13, 2009

SEATTLE — A federal district court judge has ordered Microsoft (MSFT) to stop selling Word in the U.S. — and the tiny company behind the lawsuit is digging in for a David vs. Goliath showdown.

Toronto-based i4i, which has 30 employees, claims that Microsoft violated an obscure patent related to Extensible Markup Language or XML. It's a key software component of many websites and computer programs, including Word.

Judge Leonard Davis agreed Tuesday, ordering Microsoft to pay $290 million in fines and stop selling Word in the U.S. in 60 days. That could derail a core business for the world's largest software maker. the rest