Just as we predicted, Microsoft's request to have that ban on sales of Word put on hold pending appeal of i4i's XML patent victory has been granted. That means IT managers and excitable first-year college students can continue to happily throw down cash for the world's most popular word processor, while the rest of us twiddle our thumbs waiting for either proceedings to resume on September 23 or Steve Ballmer to write the big check and make this whole case disappear forever.

remember that seemingly random patent case from May in which a federal jury awarded a company called i4i Ltd $200 million in patent damages against Microsoft? Things just got worse for Redmond: the judge in the case today issued a permanent injunction against sales of Word 2003, Word 2007, and any future versions of Word that can open .xml, .docx, or .docm files containing "custom XML." Yeah, no kidding -- that's pretty much all of 'em. At issue is i4i's patent on a method for reading XML, and obviously Microsoft's vowed to appeal, so expect this injunction to be stayed pending that appeal in short order -- and also expect Microsoft to eventually either find a way to win or simply pay up, since there's no way it'll let anyone kill Word. We'll see what happens.