I n a odd move, a US District Court judge in the state of Texas has ordered Microsoft to stop selling recent versions of its Word software within 60 days. The ruling comes after a company call i4i filed a patent-infringement suit, i4i owns a patent for XML document content and architecture.

The ruling affects the two most recent and popular versions of Word which is shipped as part of Office 2003 and Office 2007. Currently, Microsoft does not expect that it will need to comply. Microsoft has stated that they will appeal the ruling and if necessary deploy  technical workarounds to get around the injunction.

In addition, Microsoft has also been ordered to pay $40 million in fees for willful infringement of i4i’s patent and over $37 million in interest.Microsoft was previously ordered to pay $200 million in damages, the suit was first filed in March 2007.