Canadian firm gets patent win over Microsoft , awarded $290 million

A U.S. judge issued a permanent injunction preventing Microsoft Corp. (MSFT-Q23.600.472.03%) from selling its flagship “Word” software in the United States, agreeing with a jury verdict that the company willfully violated a patent held by a small Toronto firm.

Microsoft has been barred from selling MS Word in the US and while being forced to pay $290 million in damages to I4i, a Toronto company.

From the Globe and Mail:

"The firm said that several years ago it approached Microsoft with a breakthrough product in data processing, only to be spurned and to see its technology show up later in versions of Microsoft Word. "

Should be interesting....

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Twitter Lawsuit: Using it as an Emergency Broadcast System could cost you!

Law.com reports today on a lawsuit from a Texas-based emergency broadcast technology company alleging that by designing its system in a way that allows Twitter to be used for emergency broadcasts, Twitter has violated the litigant's patent.

I think we can all agree that intellectual property rights have gone seriously wrong over the past years...

Ridiculous

ps. A great documentary on IP and our society: http://www.ripremix.com/

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