Court Stay of Microsoft Word Injunction Is Minor News

There is a plethora of stories about the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit giving Microsoft a stay of the permanent injunction that would prevent sales of copies of Word that infringed the i4i patent. But forget about the breathless coverage, because this was to be expected. If a company is appealing a patent infringement ruling at a lower court level, the next court up, whether the CAFC or the Supreme Court, is unlikely to leave an injunction in place because the act of appeal means that something is in question and needs to be resolved. Although Microsoft and its resellers badly needed this to happen, it isn't a surprise that it did, and the real story will be what happens when the judges hear the case. It wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft was preparing a version of Word that it could swap out, if worst came to worst, so as not to disrupt the happy cud-chewing of its important cash cow.

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