An appeals court on Friday rejected Microsoft Corp.'s challenge to a $142 million trial loss over patents on a way to prevent software piracy. "Substantial evidence supports the jury's verdict" that Microsoft infringed two valid patents owned by closely held z4 Technologies Inc., the appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) must stand trial on charges they violated the federal anti-racketeering laws, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

Microsoft has attempted to block the court-ordered end to sales of Microsoft Word over a patent dispute. But court papers show that company officers were aware of the patent when they took the infringing action.

A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld a $290-million US judgment against Microsoft Corp. in a patent case launched by Toronto-based i4i Inc., and issued an injunction that will prevent the sale of its popular Word software.

Microsoft Corp. will soon be free of a U.S. court decree imposed for anti-competitive behavior, just in time for a showdown with Google Inc. and others seeking domination in the ever-changing software industry.

A Seoul court ruled that the world's largest software giant Microsoft illegally used patent-covered software technology developed by a Korean professor, ending an eight-year-long legal battle between the scientist and the U.S. company.

Microsoft knew of the patent held by i4i as early as 2001, but instead set out to make the Canadian developer's software "obsolete" by adding a feature to Word, according to court documents.

I thought you might like to see the court's order regarding Microsoft, extending the US District Court for the District of Columbia's oversight. There are actually two documents, one released for the public, a kind of executive summary [PDF], and then a much longer (78 pages compared to 6) Memorandum and Order, which is available from the US District Court for the District of Columbia's website's daily list of orders. I have them both as text.

A European Union court on Monday dismissed Microsoft's appeal against the 2004 ruling which found the company had abused its dominant market position to score over rivals. Microsoft's lawyers failed to impress the European Court of First Instance, which not only dismissed the case but also rejected the appeal against the €497 million ($690 million) fine imposed on the company.