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Earlier this week Microsoft was ordered to stop selling Word within 60 days.  The decision came down from Texas, a state known for being very pro-patent owner.  While Microsoft isn’t saying much more than the fact that it will file for appeals, the Chairman of i4i, the company that filed the patent suit, Loudon Owen is willing to speak out.

Owen is eager to mention that he and i4i have no intentions of stopping Word in any way.  According to Owen that “would not be a sensible remedy.”  He’s also saying that i4i isn’t looking for any sort of legal war of Microsoft.  While he seems to be saying that stopping the sale of Word isn’t their ultimate goal, Owen is admitting that the $200 million Microsoft was ordered to pay i4i is a great help fro the small company.

Loudon Owen also quips that the company is eager to partner with “any good partner,” noting that Microsoft could be such.  While i4i says it’s looking only to protect its patent, going after Microsoft and one of its most important programs seems to be begging for such a deal.  There’s no reasonable way Microsoft can change how it handles the files that infringe the patent within 30 days without patching everything back to .doc files.  The only other way would be to get a license from i4i or partner with the company to use the Custom XML it has the patent for.

Read [DailyTech]