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i4i (Infrastructures for Information) is an independent software company specializing in the delivery of XML / SGML document processing software in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada, founded by Michel Vulpe in 1993.


Patent dispute

In 1994, Michel Vulpe and Stephen Owens filed for a
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
for methods for using regular
word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word ...
s as XML /SGML editors. In 1998, the
United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency in the United States Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark ...
issued patent #5,787,449, which describes the invention as "a system and method for the separate manipulation of the architecture and content of a document, particularly for data representation and transformations. The system, for use by computer software developers, removes dependency on document encoding technology. A map of metacodes found in the document is produced and provided and stored separately from the document. The map indicates the location and addresses of metacodes in the document. The system allows of multiple views of the same content, the ability to work solely on structure and solely on content, storage efficiency of multiple versions and efficiency of operation." In 2007,
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
filed an ex-parte re-examination request with the USPTO citing prior art as invalidating the 5,787,449 patent. The USPTO reviewed the prior art and Microsoft's assertions of patent invalidity in light of the prior art. In April 2010 the USPTO affirmed all the challenged claims. Microsoft also filed for patent re-examination with the USPTO. The re-examination confirmed all the challenged claims. Not satisfied with this result, Microsoft filed an appeal to the Commissioner of Patents. This was turned down. Microsoft then filed another re-examination request. This second request was denied by the USPTO. In May 2007, Vulpe and i4i successfully sued Microsoft, in the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (in case citations, E.D. Tex.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Fifth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. ...
, for willfully infringing the '449 patent. The court awarded over $240 million in damages and granted the first ever injunction against the infringing product, Microsoft Word. The injunction was stayed by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit pending Microsoft's appeal. On December 22, 2009 the Court affirmed in full the decision of the lower court: the injunction was reinstated, the damages awarded affirmed and the validity of the patent affirmed. Microsoft subsequently filed a petition for a writ of
certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of a prerogative writ in England, issued by a superior court to direct that the recor ...
with the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
asking it to hear the case.Search
/ref> The question put to the Court was: "The Patent Act provides that ' patent shall be presumed valid' and that ' e burden of establishing invalidity of a patent or any claim thereof shall rest on the party asserting such invalidity.' 35 U.S.C. § 282. The Federal Circuit held below that Microsoft was required to prove its defense of invalidity under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) by 'clear and convincing evidence,' even though the prior art on which the invalidity defense rests was not considered by the Patent and Trademark Office prior to the issuance of the asserted patent. The question presented is: Whether the court of appeals erred in holding that Microsoft's invalidity defense must be proved by clear and convincing evidence." The writ was granted in November 2010 for the case
Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. Partnership ''Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. Partnership'', 564 U.S. 91 (2011), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. It deals with the presumption of validity and the standard of evidence in patent lawsuits. This case in widely conside ...
. On June 9, 2011, the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of i4i in a unanimous decision. Microsoft was ordered to pay $300 million in damages to i4i.


References

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External links


i4i corporate website
Software companies of Canada Companies based in Toronto Companies established in 1993