Microsoft has had to issue a new version of its Office and Word product after a federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a $290 million judgement against the company and issued an injunction preventing sales in its current format.

The court injunction is set to go into effect January 11. Microsoft has said such a bar would prohibit the sale of all currently available versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office. The company had appealed a Texas jury verdict in favour of i4i Inc., a Toronto company. The jury found recent versions of Microsoft Word infringed on a software patent.

Redmond claimed that it and the public will both suffer if Word goes off the market while the company devises a workaround. The court said the decision does not affect copies of the programs sold before the injunction goes into effect, so Microsoft can still provide technical support to the old versions even if they infringe on the patent.

Microsoft said that it had developed a workaround and would be releasing a new version of Office without the troublesome code.