Davis Lawyers Quoted in Information Exec

Published: Friday, 14 August 2009

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Euan Taylor and Sarah Dale-Harris were interviewed by Maria Cootauco of the Information Exec, an online publication for IT executives in Canada. Euan and Sara weighed in on this week's ruling against Microsoft Corp. that leveled a permanent injunction prohibiting the software giant from selling or importing its popular Word program.

Tuesday's decision follows a verdict in May that awarded Toronto-based i4i Inc. close to US$300 million in damages after a federal jury found Microsoft infringed on i4i's XML patents.

"I think it shows that even for a small company, a good patent can be immensely valuable," said Euan Taylor, a Vancouver-based associate of Davis LLP. "You can't assume that you can go ahead and do whatever you want to do. The courts do take patent licences very seriously and they will enforce them. . .They're not a naïve company. They have lots of their own IP and I'm sure they've thought about this long and hard before going to court over it.... It might wake them up a little bit, that being big does not automatically mean you can trample over everybody else."

Considering the lighter side of the case, Sarah Dale-Harris quipped, "I love the irony of the name of this company, i4i. "That's fabulous."