The chairman of the company that won a landmark injunction against Microsoft says his goal is not to see Word pulled from store shelves.
In fact, i4i chairman Loudon Owen said he is one of millions who use Word and other Microsoft Office tools every day.
"We're not seeking to stop Microsoft's business and we're not seeking to interfere with all the users of Word out there," Owen said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. He added that this week's ruling orders an injunction only against Word shipping in a form that uses i4i's custom XML technology.
Microsoft has several options, including legal appeals, pursuing a settlement or changing Word in a way so that it doesn't infringe on i4i's technology.
Although he could not comment on such a technical workaround, Owen said he would be happy to see Microsoft come out with a version of Word that removes the infringement.
"The injunction is not saying there is no more Word for the world," Owen said. "That is not our intention and that would not be a sensible remedy."
The judge's ruling, in addition to upholding a $200m (£120m) monetary settlement awarded in May, issues an injunction against Microsoft that bars Word in its current form. The ruling will go into effect in 60 days, unless Microsoft wins a stay as part of an appeal, which is currently in the works.
As for the size of the monetary verdict in the case, Owen would not say how it compares to the company's annual revenue, but noted it is a big deal.
"It's obviously a material verdict by US patent verdict [standards], but we think it is fair," he said.
Owen said i4i's focus is on its products, not on the courts. He added that the company's mission is trying to make database-ready all of the world's unstructured information. Only about 10 percent of data today is structured, but XML can change that.
The company, which has about 30 employees and has been running since 1993, has products in use by a number of large companies, including many large pharmaceuticals, such as Amgen, Bayer and Biogen.
One of the company's biggest projects was the 2001 overhaul of the US Patent and Trademark Office's website for patent submissions. The patent involved in its suit against Microsoft was filed in 1994 and granted in 1998.
Owen said he could not comment on whether there have been any recent settlement talks. Asked whether there might be room for some sort of partnership between the two companies, he said: "Microsoft is too big for us to buy at this point."
Talkback
Should seize this as a good opportunity to start changing there image from school yard bully to something more open and helpful.
Even negatives can be turned into positives.