Microsoft loses patent appeal, must halt sale of Office by Jan. 11
Microsoft on Tuesday lost an appeal to be able to continue selling its popular Word software, which has been found in violation of a patent related to XML.
Microsoft was originally ordered to stop selling Word in August, after i4i Inc., of Toronto, Ontario won a suit over the program's ability to open .XML, .DOCX and .DOCM files, based on custom XML included in the file types. The court agreed to allow Microsoft to keep selling Word as the appeal went through the court. But Tuesday, that was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Microsoft now has until Jan. 11, 2010 to stop selling all versions of Word and Office that infringe on the patents owned by i4i. In a statement, Microsoft said it is "moving quickly to comply with the injunction."
"With respect to Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007, we have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products," the company said.
"Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction."
The injunction applies to copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 sold in the U.S. on or after the Jan. 11 date. Copies sold before the date are not affected.
"While we are moving quickly to address the injunction issue, we are also considering our legal options, which could include a request for a rehearing by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals en banc or a request for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court," Microsoft said.
In September, Microsoft shipped Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition. The new SKU includes Entourage Web Services Edition and Microsoft Document Connection for Mac.
Microsoft also plans to release Office 2010 for Mac next year, along with a new version of Outlook built from the ground up for the platform. Office 2010 for Mac is expected to debut in time for the holidays next year.
Microsoft was originally ordered to stop selling Word in August, after i4i Inc., of Toronto, Ontario won a suit over the program's ability to open .XML, .DOCX and .DOCM files, based on custom XML included in the file types. The court agreed to allow Microsoft to keep selling Word as the appeal went through the court. But Tuesday, that was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Microsoft now has until Jan. 11, 2010 to stop selling all versions of Word and Office that infringe on the patents owned by i4i. In a statement, Microsoft said it is "moving quickly to comply with the injunction."
"With respect to Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007, we have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products," the company said.
"Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction."
The injunction applies to copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 sold in the U.S. on or after the Jan. 11 date. Copies sold before the date are not affected.
"While we are moving quickly to address the injunction issue, we are also considering our legal options, which could include a request for a rehearing by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals en banc or a request for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court," Microsoft said.
In September, Microsoft shipped Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition. The new SKU includes Entourage Web Services Edition and Microsoft Document Connection for Mac.
Microsoft also plans to release Office 2010 for Mac next year, along with a new version of Outlook built from the ground up for the platform. Office 2010 for Mac is expected to debut in time for the holidays next year.
Comments
Wouldn't this be considered "a bad thing" for those that want to use open file formats?
GTSC
Microsoft will cut a royalty deal with i4i, and continue to sell Office. Bet on it.
GTSC
They don't need to. They are just taking out the feature.
Merry Christmas Microsoft. I am not sure that this will hold or should. How can one patent XML extensions?
Wouldn't this be considered "a bad thing" for those that want to use open file formats?
It's not about file formats.
You can read detailed information on Groklaw.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?s...91222145134400
The day Microsoft goes out of business, humankind will make a gigantic leap ahead! As with other monopolies.
Leaving Apple to have a monopoly? Not a good idea. Apple is already showing too many 'Big Brother' characteristics as it is... At least MS is cheap. Get rid of the cheap monopoly, and you're left with Apple being an expensive monopoly.
Leaving Apple to have a monopoly? Not a good idea. Apple is already showing too many 'Big Brother' characteristics as it is... At least MS is cheap. Get rid of the cheap monopoly, and you're left with Apple being an expensive monopoly.
Microsoft cheap? When was the last time you paid for Microsoft software such as Windows, Office, Visual Studio?
/sarcasm.
Microsoft cheap? When was the last time you paid for Microsoft software such as Windows, Office, Visual Studio?
windows and office are fairly priced for what they are. the full version of OSX is almost the same as the full version of windows 7 home prem.
visual studio... its a pretty robust piece of software and its going to be bulk licensed by businesses at a cheaper rate. the average consumer wont buy this
It's not about file formats.
You can read detailed information on Groklaw.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?s...91222145134400
The feature seems to be this one:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb608618.aspx
which allows users to store arbitrary data inside an Office document.:
"This is useful if you want to work with XML data in a document on a computer that does not have Microsoft Office applications installed, such as a server."
One thing that I really wanted to see from Microsoft eventually is a way to let Word users build online forms by laying them out inside Word and just dropping the file on the server - online form generators aren't that intuitive. The custom XML could have been used and read on a server without a .docx reader and allowed content-managed forms.
Even if it seems good that Microsoft are made to pay out a couple of hundred million, it's no gain for people who want to push forward the flexibility of open formats. When that flexibility is removed from open formats, companies just revert back to proprietary ways to get the job done. This won't mean scrapping .docx etc but it could mean using a proprietary method to embed custom data, which can make it hard to access that data.
You cannot have a monopoly on your own brand. Now if Apple has say 80-90% of the computing market, THEN you can say they have a monopoly ON COMPUTERS, NOT on Macs.
Leaving Apple to have a monopoly? Not a good idea. Apple is already showing too many 'Big Brother' characteristics as it is... At least MS is cheap. Get rid of the cheap monopoly, and you're left with Apple being an expensive monopoly.
Huh. Wonder where they got that custom XML code?
/sarcasm.
Not clear to me what Custom XML actually is.
I found this http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3712
Post author Stephane Rodriguez links to a couple of Microsoft-provided definitions of Custom XML.
The first, from Office Program Manager Brian Jones, dates back to 2005:
“Custom XML is the support for custom defined schemas. It’s that support that allows you truly integrate your documents with business processes and business data. You can define your data using XML Schema syntax, and then you can use that data in your Office documents. By opening up our formats with our reference schemas, and supporting your custom defined schemas, you get true interoperability of your documents.”
I did some more searching. I found a 2008 retort to Rodriguez’s post that also attempts to define Custom XML. From .Net evangelist Wouter van Vugt:
Custom XML markup “is about embedding custom XML defined outside of Open XML to support solution which aim to structure a document using business semantics, not only using formatting. A great advance since you want to get to the data, and not by saying that the customer name is the 3rd paragraph. The issue is that you cannot just allow any arbitrary XML to be stored in the WordprocessingML package. This would become application specific, and it would break validation since all XML is valid. Not a great idea.”
The feature seems to be this one:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb608618.aspx
which allows users to store arbitrary data inside an Office document.:
Thanks for the link. This part I find interesting since the injunction seems to refer to opening the Custom XML in Word:
You can create or modify custom XML parts when the document is open in the Office application, or when the document is closed—even if Microsoft Office is not installed.
I don't get people who continue to talk about an "Apple Monopoly". I really wish you would learn what the word actually means. "Ooooh, I wish someone would stop Honda from their Accord monopoly. While you're at it, Sharp's monopoly on Aquos flat screens is pretty ridiculous, as is Canon's monopoly on the EOS line of digital cameras.
You cannot have a monopoly on your own brand. Now if Apple has say 80-90% of the computing market, THEN you can say they have a monopoly ON COMPUTERS, NOT on Macs.
you didnt read what he was referencing.
he was referencing the fact if microsoft closed its doors there was an implication that the next successor would be apple to gain the majority market share.
Hardly a blow to MS, aside from PR, but even that's marginal at best.
At least MS is cheap. Get rid of the cheap monopoly, and you're left with Apple being an expensive monopoly.
You've never actually paid for any MS software, have you?