I4i, a small Toronto based software company sued Microsoft for patent infringement, won an injunction and $290 million USD, and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington upheld the ruling on December 22, 2009.

On Aug. 12, a jury in a federal U.S. district court in Texas ruled in favor of i4i against Microsoft, for infringing the XML patent in the 2003 and 2007 versions of Word, and issued an injunction to stop the selling of Microsoft Word. That injunction was stayed while Microsoft appealed the case with the Court of Appeals. Now, as of January 11, 2009, the infringing portion of the application must be removed, or the product Microsoft Word must be removed from the marketplace.