MS Word banned

[Belcross]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/sof ... =219200383" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

InformationWeek

Microsoft Word Sales Banned In U.S.

Judge also fines software maker more than $240 million for XML-related patent violation.

By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek
Aug. 12, 2009
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/sh ... =219200383" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A Judge on Tuesday ordered Microsoft to stop selling its popular Word document creation application in the United States after finding that the software contains technology that violates a patent held by a third party.

Microsoft Office, which includes Word, accounted for more than $3 billion in worldwide sales in Microsoft's most recent fiscal year and is used by literally millions of businesses and consumers for everyday tasks like word processing and making spreadsheets and presentations.

The judge said the ruling, which applies to Word 2003 and Word 2007, takes effect in 60 days.

Investors shrugged off the news—perhaps in anticipation of a higher court overturning the ruling, which arose from the plaintiff-friendly Eastern Texas federal jurisdiction. Microsoft shares were up 1.6% to $23.50 in early trading Wednesday.

Judge Leonard Davis, of U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas, said Microsoft "unlawfully infringed" on a patent that describes how programs go about "manipulating a document's content and architecture separately." The patent, No. 5,787,449, is held by Toronto-based i4i, Inc. i4i develops "collaborative content solutions," according to its Web site.

i4i originally sued Microsoft for patent infringement in 2007. Microsoft officials said the company plans to appeal, adding that the software maker is "disappointed by the court's ruling." The company said it believes i4i's patent is "invalid."

Davis on Tuesday ordered Microsoft to pay $240 million in damages to i4i, plus court costs and interest. More significantly, he enjoined Microsoft from continuing to sell Microsoft Word, in its current form, in the U.S.

Specifically, Davis said Microsoft can't sell versions of Word that can open documents saved in the .XML, .DOCX, or .DOCM formats that contain custom XML. Those formats were at the heart of the patent dispute. .DOCX is the default format for the most current version of Word, which is included in Microsoft Office 2007. Custom XML is used by businesses to link their corporate data to Word documents.

"Microsoft Corporation is hereby permanently enjoined" from selling Word 2003 and Word 2007 in the U.S. Davis, wrote in his order.

Davis also prohibited Microsoft from providing technical support for infringing products sold after the injunction takes effect, or from "testing, demonstrating, or marketing the ability of the infringing and future Word products to open an XML file containing custom XML."

Davis said the injunction does not apply to versions of Word that open an XML file as plain text or which apply a transform that removes all custom XML elements—possibly paving the way for Microsoft to issue a patch that rectifies the problem.

InformationWeek has published an in-depth report on application development. Download the report here (registration required).


Copyright © 2009 United Business Media LLC, All rights reserved.

[JOKER]

i4i should just sit in the hole that they were in BEFORE this all happened. If they are such a great company they should stop sulking and tell microsoft to stfu and then make a new word editing software.

I also like that their webiste, http://www.i4i.com, has microsoft word stuff on it...just showing that they prolly researched word and took some of their matieral and use it for themselves.

[tomwzhere]

:O no wonder i jsut tried to update my ban log and i couldnt type anything on it =[ now how do i keep one

[Belcross]

i4i should just sit in the hole that they were in BEFORE this all happened. If they are such a great company they should stop sulking and tell microsoft to stfu and then make a new word editing software.

First I'd like to remind you to watch your language, and here I thought you'd be enforcing our rules, which I assume you know, understand and enforce since you have an application to join us

Anyway, this is not the first time Microsoft steals codes from other software companies. They're extremely defensive when someone takes their stuff as well, Google it.

I also like that their webiste, http://www.i4i.com, has microsoft word stuff on it...just showing that they prolly researched word and took some of their matieral and use it for themselves.

It's the other way around...

[JOKER]

i4i should just sit in the hole that they were in BEFORE this all happened. If they are such a great company they should stop sulking and tell microsoft to stfu and then make a new word editing software.

First I'd like to remind you to watch your language, and here I thought you'd be enforcing our rules, which I assume you know, understand and enforce since you have an application to join us

Anyway, this is not the first time Microsoft steals codes from other software companies. They're extremely defensive when someone takes their stuff as well, Google it.

I also like that their webiste, http://www.i4i.com, has microsoft word stuff on it...just showing that they prolly researched word and took some of their matieral and use it for themselves.

It's the other way around...

My bad on the language...I posted this before Venom talked with me about the words...forgot to edit this one. Wont happen again!

But isnt most things centered around .docx? The article says that i4i came up with that converting software? How could microsoft get away with so much!

[puppet]

lol at first i thought

what does ms word mean LOL

like in one of those states they banned the N word

i thought you meant ms = some word

[Venom]

lol at first i thought

what does ms word mean LOL

like in one of those states they banned the N word

i thought you meant ms = some word

I lol'd

<3 pup

[puppet]

<3 venie

rofl i was like damn ...

is there a bad word i missed out on or what lol ..im losing track

the only thing that popped in my head was the hispanic gang MS 13 LOL ..

[Venom]

<3 venie

rofl i was like damn ...

is there a bad word i missed out on or what lol ..im losing track

the only thing that popped in my head was the hispanic gang MS 13 LOL ..

Puppet... there is no profane word you have not used. Your clan mates can vouch for that during scrims


I don't use Word as much anymore. Thank god they haven't messed with excel

[Belcross]

Well there is always openoffice which is free and it's almost the same stuff