According to Negrin, although Microsoft has the right to request an appeal, and a postponement of the damages while that appeal works it way through the system -- the latter is almost always granted -- it has no automatic right to a stay of the injunction. "The district court judge already denied a request for a stay," Negrin noted last week.

In fact, Microsoft also filed a separate appeal of the judgment, and with i4i's agreement, will not have to post bond, as is often required, to guarantee that it has the money to pay damages if it loses the appeal.

Working against Microsoft's request for a stay of the injunction is the fact that it was hit with "willful infringement" of the i4i patent, Negrin said. In a 65-page summary opinion, Judge Davis said that held by i4i as early as 2001, but nevertheless set out to make the Canadian developer's software "obsolete" by adding a feature to Word.

Microsoft has also asked the Court of Appeals to put its motion on a fast-track schedule. It requested that the court order i4i to respond to the motion by next Monday, Aug. 24, and promised it would file a reply to any i4i response by Aug. 28.