San Francisco  - A US judge has ruled that Microsoft can continue to sell its popular Word programme, despite an earlier ruling that the software violated the patent of a Canadian company.

Microsoft plans to appeal the patent ruling and asked the US Court of Appeals in Washington to allow it to continue selling the software until the appeal is heard. The court granted the company's request in a ruling issued late Thursday.

"We are happy with the result and look forward to presenting our arguments on the main issues on September 23," said Kevin Kutz, a Microsoft spokesman, in a statement.

The ruling came a month after The US District Court for Eastern Texas found that Microsoft "unlawfully infringed " on a document patent owned by Toronto-based i4i Inc, which first sued Microsoft in 2007. The court barred Microsoft from selling versions of Word that infringed on the patent, starting in October.  dpa