The Wall Street Journal reports on a recent federal appeals court decision to fine Microsoft $290 million and ban the company from selling copies of Word 2007 after 11 January 2010. The plaintiff, a Canadian software company named i4i Inc., sued Microsoft in 2007 for infringing on a patent for technology that improves the handling of XML code. Microsoft, while looking further into its legal options, has plans to remove the contested code from future copies of Word 2007 and the forthcoming Office 2010 - though the company notes it does not expect shipments of the program to be disrupted. follow link