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A few weeks ago I wrote about an injunction case filed against Microsoft, where Canadian firm i4i sued against Microsoft Word's use of XML technology it says was covered by its patents. Incredibly, an East Texas court gave the case to i4i and ordered Microsoft to hold sales of Microsoft Word (versions 2003 and 2007) until the software was tweaked, plus pay i4i almost $300 million in damages.

Microsoft had 60 days to appeal the injunction, but it obviously didn't want to wait that long -- three weeks later they filed for and won a stay from the injunction. (The US Court of Appeals for the Federal District awarded the stay -- it wasn't a local court in East Texas.)

So for now, the lawyers of i4i will have to go back to the drawing board. The Canadian company raised eyebrows over the digital computing world when it chose to file their injunction case against Microsoft in East Texas, when Microsoft itself was based in Washington.

East Texas is a haven for patent law cases, and is notoriously litigation-friendly. This was why the injunction case last month was at the same time surprising -- and one second later made people think, "East Texas? Why am I NOT surprised?"

i4i lawyers insist that they didn't choose Texas because it increased their chances of success, but because the state was a "rocket docket," where cases were heard quickly (they claim they had a short time frame to file the case). They also insist that Judge Davis, who awarded the injunction case to i4i, was a programmer and systems analyst in his student days, and knew what he was doing.

Seriously, who the heck are they trying to fool? :)

In any case, Microsoft is expected to fully win the case in the long run, although it'll definitely take quite a bit of time and paperwork. Where does that leave i4i?

On the upside for the 'nadian firm, they're the poster boys for small companies who go against the Goliaths in the industry. Let's just hope similar cases in the future don't get filed under boneheaded circumstances like in this one.