Microsoft Violated Patent: Cannot Sell Word

[Win7User512]

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a $290 million judgment against Microsoft Corp. and issued an injunction that will prevent the sale of its popular Word software.
The court injunction is set to go into effect Jan. 11. Microsoft has said such a bar would prohibit the sale of all currently available versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office.
Microsoft had appealed a Texas jury verdict in favor of i4i Inc., a Toronto company. The jury found recent versions of Microsoft Word infringed on a software patent.
Microsoft has said 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.

Court: Microsoft violated patent; can't sell Word - Yahoo! News

Wow. They can't even sell it while they work on changes.

Between the U.S. courts and the EU, MS can only win in the court of public opinion!

Discuss!


EDIT: MS says no worries; they will have it available in January:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Court-bans-sale-of-Word-apf-2019805011.html?x=0&.v=5

 

[jimbo45]

Ms Office Illegal in Canada from Jan ?????

Hi all
I was half drunk at the time but watching on our International 'Biz News channel (even if it is XMAS the Stock market is still open ) I think I saw something about another MS tangle with lawyers upholding some previous Court decision involving a canadian company i4i (I think) and MS Office.

Anyway upshot is that someone in Canada can't sell MS Office from Jan 2010 -- not sure who'se suing who or what but if someone can enlighten me -- I can't believe MS Office is going to be blocked in Canada although looking at some international Court decisions these days anything is possible if you pay the Lawyers enough.

Here's also another reference from the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8427474.stm

If you like XML, DOCX, DOCM etc download current versions of Office NOW.


Cheers
jimbo

 

[jfar]

Hi, Jim it was discussed here earlier on, still it is bad news for MS at this moment in time.


http://www.sevenforums.com/news/48698-microsoft-violated-patent-cannot-sell-word.html

 

[z3r010]

Threads merged

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Thanks for the Link --I missed that -- was drinking Beer (and other stronger stuff) -- Xmas "Practice" party.

Still download current versions if you want to use the feature -- XML is actually quite useful as a format.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Tarka Dal]

I love my docx what happens now?

 

[blackroseMD1]

That sucks for MS, although it doesn't seem like it's going to make much difference anyway, since they have been working on a workaround since August.

Kinda makes me wonder though, how many people on here are still using 2003/2007, and how many are running the 2010 Beta.

 

[jimbo45]

I love my docx what happens now?

Keep your existing versions of Office - these will still be valid whatever happens.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[pparks1]

Seems things are blown out of proportion here.

The injunction is against the custom XML function...which Microsoft director of public affairs, Kevin Kutz says, "is a little used feature" that they are quickly removing from the 2003 and 2007 products. It's not included with the 2010 product whatsoever.

This isn't the ability to use docx formats or xml in general.

Between the U.S. courts and the EU, MS can only win in the court of public opinion!

Discuss!

Well, according to i4i, the infringement was intentional and was a deliberate attempt to remove i4i from the marketspace. Sounds to me like Microsoft might have been stepping on some toes in order to retain their stranglehold in the marketspace. In my court of opinion, I prefer fair business practices and a better product...not a strong-arm tactic from a monopoly.

 

[TheTeZ]

openoffice.... ?

 

[pparks1]

openoffice.... ?

While I like and use Open Office at home simply because I'm not going to spend money on Microsoft Office.....I don't think this news story presents enough persuasive reasonings to abandon Microsoft Office. It seems this issue revolves around a small feature that will be easily removed and hardly missed.

 

[Win7User512]

Well, according to i4i, the infringement was intentional and was a deliberate attempt to remove i4i from the marketspace. Sounds to me like Microsoft might have been stepping on some toes in order to retain their stranglehold in the marketspace. In my court of opinion, I prefer fair business practices and a better product...not a strong-arm tactic from a monopoly.

I support fair business practices as well.

Don't consider my words out of context. I said "public opinion" not "techie public opinion." Most individuals who hear about it in the general public won't necessarily see it as malicious or strong-arming.

 

[cloud8521]

didn't i hear about this months back?

 

[pparks1]

didn't i hear about this months back?

Yes, as the story points out, the original decision was made in August and was upheld in court just recently.

 

[mark39]

There is already a patch available to disable the XML feature. All retail versions after 11 Jan 2010 will be patched and if you currently have office/word installed you don't need to do anything. MS will not stop selling office or word at all and will simply release the patch via windows update.

 

[ccatlett1984]

So, whats the kb number so i can block it?

 

[pparks1]

So, whats the kb number so i can block it?

Do you even know what functionality is being removed? Why would you want to prevent it from being removed in your current copy of Office?

This is something that will NOT be included in Office 2010 and above.

 

[IggyAZ]

Can't we all just get along.....

 

[thefabe]

Well somebody has to be suing somebody or else what are all those law students going to do after passing the bar. I read somewhere their are as many law students in collage as their are lawyers right now.

 

[manhunter2826]

Well somebody has to be suing somebody or else what are all those law students going to do after passing the bar. I read somewhere their are as many law students in collage as their are lawyers right now.

:rotfl: