Microsoft Word illegal!!??

ScottM

ScottM

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iBazinga!
Office workers of America, enjoy your Christmas break. Because come the new year, things could get a little hairy around the office. Microsoft Word is now scheduled to be prohibited from sale beginning January 11, 2010. That's less than three weeks away. The good news: Microsoft has promised a fix, one which will be rolled out before the deadline arrives. If you don't understand, you might have simply missed this story, or dismissed it as something that Microsoft would ultimately use its considerable clout to have pushed under a legal rug.
But it's no joke. In August of this year, a court sided with a small Canadian company called i4i that holds a 1998 patent on the way the XML language is implemented, finding that Microsoft was in violation of that patent. The result: Microsoft was told to license the code in question from i4i or reprogram it, or else Microsoft Word would have to be removed from sale in the market. The original ruling gave Microsoft until October to get its legal affairs in order, but appeals pushed that out a bit.
Click to expand...


http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/158160
 
OK I read all that but I think a "feature" in a bloated POS has been identified as problem. MS says it will be gone by the time the decision is effective.

Whack their Pipi! Pay the piper? Can they afford it?

Joe
 
The article I saw indicated that they've already created a version without the code in question and it will be in versions sold as of January 11. And, it isn't in Office 2010, either. All it did was speed the process of interpreting XML files. One more reason to buy a new computer with a faster, more powerful processor. :D
 
Ghery said:
The article I saw indicated that they've already created a version without the code in question and it will be in versions sold as of January 11. And, it isn't in Office 2010, either. All it did was speed the process of interpreting XML files. One more reason to buy a new computer with a faster, more powerful processor. :D
Click to expand...

I concur :D
 
I just use WordPerfect. Problem avoided.
 
Microsoft says they'll have new versions out in time, so there should be no disruption in sales.

Like most software patents, this one covers a fairly obvious idea that any software engineer would arrive upon when presented with a need to solve a problem of a similar nature. It's not like this was some amazing technology and Microsoft stole the idea, I'm sure Microsoft had no concept that there was a patent on it.

This is such an obvious thing to do, that I'm sure there exists prior art for it, but since few developers would ever think to patent something this simple, it's pretty hard to locate that prior art. Then again, I'm sure Microsoft holds plenty of such patents themselves.
-harry
 
This is a problem in many areas of business/technology...
You find a way to improve battery charging and start building units, then some scumbag atty slaps you with a suit because some guy filed a patent application that sorta, kinda, looks like your process - of course the 'inventor' didn't/couldn't build one that actually worked, he just patented the idea, sorta, kinda - but now he OWNS your working system...
It is long past time when a patent application should HAVE to show an actual working, ready for use, device before the patent can be granted...

We see this in copyright law - If your name is Jimmy Dean, you will not be opening a restaurant under YOUR name, because someone else claims he owns those two words...

And every single line of computer code that is being patented existed somewhere else prior... If I were given the power to rule on patents there would be no patents for computer code, period... Those code writers did not invent a damned thing, they are only re-using existing </commands/> and </syntax/>...

denny-o </luddite prime/>
 
If it's the problem I'm thinking of, it was because Microsoft obsconded with a proprietary European proctol using the .DOCX extension.
If they remove that protocol and go back to v11, they should be ok

Matter of fact, All of Office would be better if they'd revert to v11.
 
I'm not sure I remember when I last used MS Word. I prefer OpenOffice.org, personally.

As for the patents themselves, I think Harry hit the nail on the head. I suspect that most software patents would fail the uniqueness, inventive step, and non-obviousness tests if they were applied to software in the same way as they are applied to other patentable things.

I also suspect that very few developers who've been in the business for a while haven't unknowingly violated someone's patent along the way. Conversely, I wonder how many individuals and small companies intentionally patent trivial code in the hope that someone with big pockets will unintentionally infringe it.

-Rich
 
I'm with Microsoft on this one - that patent is absolutely ridiculous.
 
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