Microsoft Word banned from sale in US

superscaper

Leopard wrote: »

For Apple (and its users and shareholders) the most pertient question would appear to be whether its own word processor, Pages, falls foul of that same patent (be it ridiculous or otherwise - upon which I am not qualified to judge).

If it can manipulate XML or saves in an XML format at all I'd say yes because the granted patent is so generic and merely covers just the process of editing XML. Even openoffice could be in danger.

m5rcc

superscaper wrote: »

If it can manipulate XML or saves in an XML format at all I'd say yes because the granted patent is so generic and merely covers just the process of editing XML.

Well any word processor to be honest....OpenOffice uses XML too...

superscaper

m5rcc wrote: »

Well any word processor to be honest....OpenOffice uses XML too...

Hence my original post: "affect pretty much any editor that can edit XML"

Leopard

superscaper wrote: »

If it can manipulate XML or saves in an XML format at all I'd say yes because the granted patent is so generic and merely covers just the process of editing XML. Even openoffice could be in danger.

"Pages" does. That's why I commented that the ruling was of pertinence to Apple as well. But I haven't seen the patent itself and I am not an expert in patent law. (Have and are you?)

superscaper

Leopard wrote: »

"Pages" does. That's why I commented that the ruling was of pertinence to Apple as well. But I haven't seen the patent itself and I am not an expert in patent law. (Have and are you?)

I'm not an expert by any means but I have read the patent. It's one of those that covers very generic processes and I actually agree with Microsoft that the patent should be invalidated. It's like the web consortium creating a new web language and then a small company getting a patent covering editing and saving to that particular web language. Actually that's pretty much what seems to have happened here.

Marty_J

According to Wikipedia:

On August 11th 2009, judge Leonard Davis of the US Federal court in the Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division, ordered an injunction due to be implemented within 60 days banning the sale of Microsoft Word in the United States, after accepting claims that Microsoft willfully infringed US patent 5787449 held by the Toronto based Canadian company i4i that described the utility of separately editing Structure (e.g. SGML, XML) and Content of Microsoft Word documents, originally implemented in 1998 within i4i's XML editor add-on for Microsoft Word called S4. Judge Davis also ordered Microsoft to pay i4i $40 million enhanced damages for willful infringement plus other costs, an award in addition to a $200 million award against Microsoft in May 2009. Patent suits are often brought in the courts of the Eastern District of Texas, as it is known for favoring plaintiffs and for its expertise in patent suits. Prior to entering law school judge Davis worked as a computer programmer and systems analyst.

The patent seems to relate solely to editing Microsoft Word files (at least in this case anyway).

busenbust

Love to see it enforced

Must try harder

aliEnRIK

Anyone who attacks microsoft is ok in my book _party_

dogmaryxx

http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Office-2007-Copies-Coming-after-Custom-XML-Appeal-Was-D

Quote


“This injunction applies only to copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 sold in the U.S. on or after the injunction date of January 11, 2010. Copies of these products sold before this date are not affected,” Kutz added.

Microsoft had expected such a verdict, and in this regard, noted that it had already made the necessary preparations to remove what it referred to as a little used feature from Word 2007 and Office 2007. “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,” Kutz said.

busenbust

busenbust wrote: »

Love to see it enforced

Must try harder

dogmaryxx wrote: »

http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Office-2007-Copies-Coming-after-Custom-XML-Appeal-Was-D

Quote


“This injunction applies only to copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 sold in the U.S. on or after the injunction date of January 11, 2010. Copies of these products sold before this date are not affected,” Kutz added.

Microsoft had expected such a verdict, and in this regard, noted that it had already made the necessary preparations to remove what it referred to as a little used feature from Word 2007 and Office 2007. “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,” Kutz said.

Technological full-proofing, the Microsoft way:D Anyhow, the economy would have sunk; not exactly what the USA - and the rest of the world - quite need right now:rolleyes2