In August 2009 a US district court sided with a small Canadian company called i4i in the case i4i v. Microsoft that holds a 1998 patent on the way the XML language is implemented. The ruling of appeals court in December was that Microsoft was in violation of that patent. The original ruling is upheld.
The amount of the monetary damage that i4i won in it’s August 2009 ruling was upwards of 200 million.
The patent infringement issues was over how XML was used in the word processor. Apparently it was not much because in the next Word product version the infringement does not take place at all.
According to i4i, the growth in XML as a database product feature, so i4i is providing software that would make that database information universal through XML. Microsoft apparently is in violation of the patent that i4i owned regarding XML.
The official Microsoft Response is “ We have just learned that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has denied our appeal in the i4i case. We are moving quickly to comply with the injunction, which takes effect on January 11, 2010.
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.
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. 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.
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.”
Wow. That just goes to show that money isn’t everything.
Wow. Just goes to show you how important it is to do your legal homework. I have to feel at least a little sorry for MS. Does anyone know if the “new” versions sold after the injunction date will break compatibility with certain documents that were created using the copyrighted XML technology?
Well, the commend made by Microsoft suggested that this was some kind of backend system that users had no direct access to, or there would be a lot more trouble in actually removing it from Word. Additionally, if it was integral to file compatibility, it would be a part of office 2010 in some form to remain compatibility with older Word files.
So no, I doubt this will affect file compatibility – from what I know of it, it’s just one of many different XML technologies that can be used for files like Word, and since (technically), all xml should be readable by any of them, it’s simply a case of finding or writing another one to fit in its place. I wouldn’t worry too much, Office 2010 opens all my old xml files just like 2007 does so for most people, I expect this will be a non issue. I just hope i4i does some good work with the $200m, would be a shame to see it go to waste after winning it from Microsoft.
Does this mean existing users of MS Word 2007 will have some features turned off in order to comply with this injunction?
No, the article says only copies sold after the date of the injunction have this applied. So copies people have bought before will be unaffected.
I think this is more bad press for I4i than Microsoft, as microsoft are basically dismissing it.
I think this is going to make people hit the torrents heavily for Word.
long live openoffice and canada! =D