DALLAS – McKool Smith is announcing that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today upheld a $290 million verdict and permanent injunction against Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) in a Texas patent infringement case won by Toronto-based technology provider i4i Inc.
In its ruling today, the Federal Circuit affirmed the May 20, 2009 jury verdict of $200 million for Microsoft’s willful infringement of an i4i patent covering a document production system that implements what Microsoft has called Custom XML. Judge Leonard Davis in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, later ruled that Microsoft should pay i4i an additional $90 million in damages and prejudgment interest.
The appeals court also affirmed the earlier permanent injunction. The court has ordered Microsoft to comply with the injunction by Jan. 11, 2010.
“We are grateful that the Federal Circuit has agreed that Judge Davis and the jurors in the Eastern District of Texas made the right decisions in this case,” says McKool Smith principal Douglas A. Cawley, counsel for i4i.
During trial, attorneys from McKool Smith and Tyler, Texas-based Parker, Bunt & Ainsworth successfully argued that Microsoft infringed U.S. Patent No. 5,787,449, issued to i4i in 1998. The patent covers software designed to manipulate “document architecture and content,” which removed the need for individual, manually embedded command codes to control text formatting in electronic documents.
The McKool Smith team representing i4i includes firm principal Douglas Cawley.
With more than 130 litigators working as an integrated team across offices in New York, Washington, D.C. and Texas, McKool Smith has established a reputation as one of America’s leading trial firms. The firm has been recognized by The National Law Journal and VerdictSearch for winning more Top 100 verdicts than any other U.S. law firm during the past three years. McKool Smith represents leading clients across a broad range of practice areas, including complex commercial litigation, intellectual property, bankruptcy, and white collar defense.
