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US Court Tells Microsoft To Stop Selling Word
oranghutan writes "A judge in a Texas court has given Microsoft 60 days to comply with an order to stop selling Word products in their existing state as the result of a patent infringement suit filed by i4i. According to the injunction, Microsoft is forbidden from selling Word products that let people create XML documents, which both the 2003 and 2007 versions let you do. Michael Cherry, an analyst quoted in the article, said, 'It's going to take a long time for this kind of thing to get sorted out.' Few believe the injunction will actually stop Word from being sold because there are ways of working around it. In early 2009, a jury in the Texas court ordered Microsoft to pay i4i $200 million for infringing on the patent. ZDNet has a look at the patent itself, saying it 'sounds a bit generic.'"
more like office 2000... which might not be such a bad thing. It seems to be getting worse every version.
A statement that could be applied to more or less all software patents I've seen so far.....
http://www.intellipool.se/ - Intellipool Network Monitor
I seem to remember that this is where patent trolls are born. Wonder what they did to make this judge unhappy.
Microsoft's many things, but they're never a patent troll, so I'm not sure what you mean there beyond simple schadenfreude.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
OpenOffice uses XML files by default, the format is openly-documented so anyone can use it, but it's XML. So, assuming i2i's patent is held up, how long before the OpenOffice injunction starts?
Microsoft can simply release a patch that forces Word back to the old proprietary DOC format they've been using variants of since Word 1.0. OpenOffice would have to make up a new document format, if i2i decided to continue their pursuit.
And if there's one thing we've learned about scum-sucking patent trollers, it's that they'll root and root for every penny they can, and don't really care about the damage they do.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
I actually like Open Office more then Office 2007, it doesn't have that rotten ribbon that makes it a pain in the backside to find things. Sadly my job is set around Office 2003 going to Office 2007.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
It will be a tough way to do it, but I can't see any other that might work.
The way i4i's patent sounds, this would also affect other things like OpenOffice.org and anything else that uses XML formatted documents. That's like, the entire current generation of word processors, isn't it?
That's also how I interpreted it, and also that they're going after MS rather than OO.o for the money. It's a patent troll in my book. :-(
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
And people wonder why big companies like Microsoft, IBM and others are in a constant race to patent everything.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Lately it seems that the big companies are getting affected by patent trolls more than the little guys (they have more money). And the big corps have enough political clout to push through patent reform laws. So if they are getting hammered like this, why aren't they lobbying for patent reform? Are they just not getting hit hard enough?
The enemy of your enemy is your friend.
... unless they're both enemies, and they're really big, then you just stand back and be happy that they're not fighting you.
Anyone else stop reading after they saw "a judge in a Texas court"? I'm not a Microsoft fan, but this is getting ridiculous.
Dragging people kicking and screaming into reality since 1996.
Who is the bad guy here? It seems as though Microsoft has been hoisted on their own petard. Maybe this will help MS to wake up and become a leader in patent reform, or hopefully they will appeal and win leading to an invalidation of software patents. Software patents just seem to be bad news all around.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
And, god forbid, if they won this MS would just be the first of many companies they would go after--including Sun.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
For those that are all happy and "Yay, MSFT got screwed!" I would suggest looking at this picture explaining the patent in question and seriously think about it. From the looks of it this patent is so vague pretty much ANYTHING that uses the XML format to manipulate data in any way would could possibly be looking at a lawsuit, should this patent troll decide they are a potential cash cow. This includes OO.o. How many FLOSS applications use XML in some way? Because they have all just been put at risk until this patent is either invalidated or their ability to use XML is removed.
If this is held up then XML looks to be a dead format, and least here in the USA. The patent is just too vague to make it worth the risk, and this includes OO.o ODF which IIRC uses XML as well. If this isn't proof that software patents need to be thrown in a fire I don't know what is. If this stands it doesn't matter how many patents one has, or how much work one puts into making a new format, as all it will take is a patent troll playing "buzzword bingo" and getting a broad enough patent to kill any format dead.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Didn't they just get a patent themselves on using XML to save documents?
Can we give Texas back (no backsies) to Mexico now?
We could split one of the square states into a North X and South X so we don't have to change the flag.
When this court shuts down the likes of Buffalo WiFi products, Slashdot hates this court. :-/
However when this court slams down on Microsoft, Slashdot loves the judge.
Go Figure
That's what they'd like you to think.
Its mostly patent FUD designed to inhibit Linux adoption. Its only patent trolling when its used to back lawsuits or extortion of license fees (which doesn't seem to be the main use of the claim.)
It's extortion of fees from the consumer, since if one drops linux it has to install another OS, OSX requires special hardware, which one remains?