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In the latest bit of news about patent trolling, Microsoft has been ordered yesterday by a Texas federal court to stop selling Word 2003, 2007, and any other subsequent Word incarnations that can open files containing custom XML. The plaintiff was a small Canadian firm called i4i who claims they patented the technology.

Wow.

I know patent laws can be pretty crazy in the United States, and some American patent lawyers are woefully clueless when it comes to emerging technologies. This development, however, takes the cake.

Microsoft is now set to pay up to $240 million ($200 million supposedly for the amount a similar product would fetch in today's market, $40 million for "willful infringement") for infinging on the patent, as well as nullify the technology in future software updates. But knowing Microsoft, which has done pretty well on legal cases like this one, they'll probably appeal the decision and win.

Now a lot of people are saying the judge was an idiot for ruling this way, but on the other hand, other people are saying this development was actually a good thing. It proved that even small businesses can successfully fight for their property rights, even if they stood up against giants like Microsoft.

(And then there are other people who say that the name "i4i" should raise eyebrows, and others who say that Microsoft should afterwards rename itself to "2th42th.")

I also laughed when I actually saw some bloggers call for Texas to leave the United States and make Puerto Rico the new 50th state. Texas is known to be a haven for patent law cases like this one, which gives it a fair share of infamy.

The permanent injunction will take effect in 60 days -- more than enough time, I think, for Microsoft to sort out this mess. Let's just hope they use Word 2000 to be on the safe side on this case.