Microsoft ordered to pay $200 mln in patent case

"We're very pleased," said Karen Heater, president of Toronto-based i4i, which had accused Microsoft of violating a patent held by her company in its Word processing programs.

"The jury heard extensive testimony, extensive evidence and they concluded -- as we expected they would -- that Microsoft indeed infringed," she told AFP. "It's been a long, drawn out process and we fell quite vindicated."

Microsoft said it planned to appeal the verdict handed down by the jury in a US District Court in Tyler, Texas.

"We are disappointed by the jury?s verdict," said David Bowermaster, a Microsoft spokesman.

"We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid," he said. "We believe this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported, so we will ask the court to overturn the verdict."

Microsoft was accused by i4i of infringing on its patents in its Word 2003 and Word 2007 programs.

A federal jury last month ordered Microsoft to pay 388 million dollars to another company, Uniloc, for infringing on an anti-piracy software patent held by the Singapore- and US-based firm.

(c) 2009 AFP