Microsoft wins delay of order tied to Word patent dispute

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Microsoft Corp. won a delay of a federal-court order that required it to immediately change or stop marketing its Word program, a key part of its Office productivity-software suite, media reports said.

Last month, the Toronto content-solutions provider i4i won a $290 million verdict that Microsoft had infringed one of its patents.

[ama:microsoft,1,new]

A U.S. District Court judge in Texas had barred the Redmond, Wash., software giant (MSFT 24.62, +0.51, +2.12%) from selling the infringing versions of Word. The judge had given Microsoft until Oct. 10 to comply with the order, a deadline the company had said it could not meet, media reports said.

But media reports said that on Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington deferred that order until the two sides resolve the patent dispute. Oral arguments on Microsoft’s appeal of the verdict are scheduled for Sept. 23 in Washington, the reports say.