Federal Circuit Issues Revised Ruling in ‘i4i v. Microsoft,’ Elaborating on Willful Patent Infringement

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently upheld a lower court’s $290 million patent judgment against Microsoft and ruled that Microsoft must stop selling an infringing version of Microsoft Word 2007 as of Jan. 11. The patent at issue is owned by i4i and concerns “a method for processing and storing information about the structure of electronic documents.” The reissued ruling questioned whether Microsoft had adequately raised the issue of willfulness on appeal. The recent judgment is important because it said that even if Microsoft had preserved its right to appeal the willfulness verdict, there was sufficient evidence to sustain that verdict, said Finnegan partner Donald Dunner, who argued i4i’s case at the Federal Circuit.