Microsoft Banned from selling Word in the United States

[OmegaDragon]

It appears that MS is getting sued over a copyrighted XML feature.

Microsoft has been accused of infringing patents owned by another company, i4i. The legal dispute centres around the way Microsoft Word handles certain kinds of documents.
i4i, based in Toronto, Canada, claimed that Microsoft "willingly violated" a patent granted in 1998 concerning methods for reading XML, a kind of programming language. XML allows users to customise the format of word-processing documents, enabling them to be read by various word-processing programs. Microsoft Word's ability to read and write XML documents is a crucial feature of the popular software.


Judge Leonard Davis, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ruled that Microsoft had infringed i4i's patent, and ordered the software giant to pay $290 million (£176 million) in damages. This included $40 million (£25 million) for the wilful infringement of the patent, $37 million (£23 million) in pre-judgement interest, and a further $21,102 (£13,000) per day until a final judgement is reached.
He also granted an injunction banning Microsoft from selling Microsoft Word in the United States, or importing the software in to the country. The ruling covers all Microsoft Word products that can open XML files or DOCX and DOCM documents. Microsoft has been given 60 days to comply with the injunction.
Microsoft said it would appeal against the verdict. "We are disappointed by the court's ruling," said Kevin Kutz, a spokesman for the software giant. "We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid."

Source here and here


Hmmm wonder how they are going to get out of this one...

[Cagerrin]

Is it bad that the first word I saw was Toronto and I therefore went all ?

Seriously, though, the terms of that lawsuit are ridiculous.

[Ganon]

Hmmm wonder how they are going to get out of this one...

[rossmum]

Seriously, though, the terms of that lawsuit are ridiculous.

I can say with complete honesty that I have neither seen nor heard of any other kind of lawsuit for some time.

Humans are horrible, greedy creatures.

[thehoodedsmack]

I hate copyrights, patents, and anything else that monopolizes the human creativity. If you can market something better than the other guy, you deserve to be the one doing so. Ross is right, we're too damn greedy.

[Llama Juice]

So the little guy should get shafted because he doesn't have the millions of dollars to put forward in advertising? Punnish the little guy while rewarding the big guy?

Fuck that, whoever designed the technology deserves to make bank. You'd agree if you were the one that made XML.

[thehoodedsmack]

Hmm, I guess I didn't word it properly. I didn't look at it that way, Llama. I suppose they're really the only failsafes from large corporations taking over everything. It just ticks me off when you have to pay royalties for the stupidest patents.

[rossmum]

So the little guy should get shafted because he doesn't have the millions of dollars to put forward in advertising? Punnish the little guy while rewarding the big guy?

Fuck that, whoever designed the technology deserves to make bank. You'd agree if you were the one that made XML.

There's a pretty fucking thick line between getting a deserved share in it and just being a self-righteous fuckhead

[Cojafoji]

Hmm, I guess I didn't word it properly. I didn't look at it that way, Llama. I suppose they're really the only failsafes from large corporations taking over everything. It just ticks me off when you have to pay royalties for the stupidest patents.

or when a patent is made and it's so fucking broad that it could encompass half of all known man kind...

no but seriously, back to word 2003.

[Kornman00]

You'd agree if you were the one that made XML.

Umm, this isn't about The-People-Who-Brought-You-Xml vs Microsoft. It's about some company with some patent which includes xml in it's design with word.

Any one else get a laugh at how the company name is basically "an eye for an eye"?