Posted on 08/12/2009 8:43:04 AM PDT by ShadowAce
A judge on Tuesday ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word, one of its premier products, in its current form due to patent infringement.
Judge Leonard Davis of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML", according to a statement released by attorneys for the plantiff, i4i.
Microsoft did not immediately reply to request for comment but said in a statement that it planned to appeal the verdict.
Toronto-based i4i sued Microsoft in March 2007 alleging that the software giant violated its 1998 patent (No 5,787,449) for a document system that eliminated the need for manually embedded formatting codes.
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is considered a "page description language", with one of its key qualities being that it is readable by people, not just machines. Unlike HTML, which has predefined tags, XML allows developers and users to define their own tags for data, such as price and product.
In May, a federal jury in Tyler, Texas, ruled that the custom XML tagging features of Word 2003 and Word 2007 infringed on i4i's patent and ordered Microsoft to pay $200m (£120m) in the case.
In Tuesday's ruling, Microsoft was also ordered to pay an additional $40m for willful infringement, as well as $37m in pre-judgement interest. The order requires Microsoft to comply with the injunction within 60 days and forbids Microsoft from testing, demonstrating or marketing Word products containing the contested XML feature.
So you mean when I illegally downloaded it I not only illegally stole from Microsoft I stole from i4i?
> So you mean when I illegally downloaded it I not only illegally stole from Microsoft I stole from i4i?
Hmmm... how does that sync with the concept that you cannot steal stolen property?
XML has been around for what... 15 years?
microsoft can’t sell it.. so they can give it away for free. you did it the right way :)
Microsoft a crook? :)
Seriously though, XML has been around for awhile.
Does this mean I will get a refund for my Office 2007??? Cool, since I only wanted it for OneNote!
No, Microsoft stole it from i4i, so you were wrong to steal it from Microsoft. It was theirs, they'd stolen it fair and square!
The office I work in used to have Corel’s WordPerfect, which I loved. I could do wonders on it. Then they cheaped out and decided to settle for Microsoft Word, which I hate because it is awkward and counter-intuitive. And I’m not real fond of Mac’s word processing, either.
I guess they’ll have to bundle Notepad with Office to replace Word. The “Standard Edition” will have a button link to Minesweeper on the Toolbar. The “Professional Edition” will have button links to the rest of the MS Games.
SGML since the mid-80s.
Microsoft led the charge to have software treated as a device rather than information, subject to patent, rather than copyright, so they get what they deserve.
Personally I think intellectual property law has stayed so far from it Constitutional intent that "piracy" is almost a justified act of civil disobedience, but I have some resentments born of the misbehavior of mathematics publishers.
My Office 2003 works just fine. 2007 is so bloated with crap they actually call it MS Office Space like the movie.
Damn this judge. Sell it anyway.
So who let them have a patent?
Time to investigate the examiners.
Apple died?
Office 2007 is basically UNUSABLE.
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