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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 $200 million for infringing on the patent. ZDNet has a look at the patent itself, saying it 'sounds a bit generic.'"
I am glad that the courts are being stern enough to enforce their ruling, anyone not following through on a verdict should
be held accountable, that being said, I do feel very bad for M$, as the amount given for the fine is way outrageous seeing as the XML format is an open source format, and belongs to the people anyways.
The judge was misguided when he came up with a number, and I am sure needed a new courtroom, with maybe some new staff and decided that M$ should foot his bill. No IT personnel in their right mind would have come up with this number! I would like to see the breakdown of how he came up with this number, and I can also see why M$ has not given any money yet.
To be fair, even if M$ was not in the past, and M$ is the most evil doer out there, I think this is bigger then M$ itself, in that it sets a precedent, and like all things American, this is way out of hand, and has been blown way out of proportion. Only in the US can someone burn themselves stupidly with coffee, and blame McDonalds for giving them coffee that hot....I know 0 people who drink their coffee lukewarm...
So... they patented CSS?