With the last-month ruling of the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in the Microsoft-i4i patent infringement lawsuit banning the sale of Microsoft's current Word version from Monday, January 11, Microsoft Friday urged the court to rehear the case.

The long-running lawsuit, filed by the Toronto-based i4i, had accused Microsoft of using its patented technology in a feature in Word 2003 and 2007 that enables users create customized XML documents.

In its December decision against Microsoft, the Appeals Court had upheld an earlier court's judgment, and imposed the January 11-deadline injunction preventing the sales of Word copies, as well as asking Microsoft to pay US$290 million in damages for the "intentional infringement."

With Microsoft now making an eleventh-hour attempt in seeking a reconsideration of the way in which the damages figure was determined, Kevin Kutz, the company's director of public affairs, said: "The petition details significant conflicts we believe the December 22 decision creates with established precedents governing trial procedure and the determination of damages, and we are concerned that the decision weakens judges' authority to apply appropriate safeguards in future patent trials."

While a rehearing of the case might result in reduced damages and a change to the injunction, Microsoft has still reiterated that it will be prepared to sell copies of Word 2007, sans the disputed feature, from January 11.