Microsoft appeals against Word injunction

Microsoft has asked the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to speed up the review of its appeal against the permanent injunction made against Word last week.

On 12 August, Microsoft was given 60 days to stop selling its flagship Office product in the US after successful legal action against the company in Texas by software company i4i.

Microsoft has also asked the court to stay the permanent injunction while the appeal is pending.

"These filings are not unusual in patent cases," said Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz in a statement. "As we have maintained throughout this process, we believe the evidence clearly demonstrates that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid."

I4i supplies Word XML authoring software and has insisted that Microsoft has infringed its 1998 patent (number 5,787,499) which allows users to read XML programming language in order to customise document formats.

The capability for users to read and write XML documents is embedded in Microsoft Word.

I4i filed the original lawsuit in March 2007. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found Microsoft guilty of infringing the patent in May 2009, and fined the company $200m (£122m).