Judge issues injunction against sales of Word

[Robert Toy]

A federal judge has ordered Microsoft to stop selling its Word document creation program in the United States, ruling that the program uses technology that infringes on a patent held by a Canadian company. The decision takes effect 60 days from the ruling. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

The software giant also must pay $290 million in damages to Toronto-based firm i4i, said Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The original verdict in the jury case was in May, with a final judgment rendered Tuesday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32389868/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

I woder what, iif any effect this will have on Word support?

[SPMiller]

Here's the patent MS supposedly violated: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=12&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=5,787,449&OS=5,787,449&RS=5,787,449

I could wade through that and tell you what's up, because I'd understand the technical details, but I never like these sorts of patents.

[dclary]

No effect at all.

When Microsoft lost their suit with Sun for a Java run-time compiler, they simply removed Java from Windows, and required people to go to Sun to get their JIT compiler.

All that's at stake is an XML generator in Word. Microsoft will disable/remove that functionality from Word and proceed with sales as usual.

[BenPanced]

All the while shaking their fists at the heavens and railing what they've done to deserve such a horrible fate.

[blacbird]

No effect at all.

When Microsoft lost their suit with Sun for a Java run-time compiler, they simply removed Java from Windows, and required people to go to Sun to get their JIT compiler.

All that's at stake is an XML generator in Word. Microsoft will disable/remove that functionality from Word and proceed with sales as usual.

Yup. This is Microsoft at its standard business strategy, which is to push the envelope as far as they can until they run into a resistance they can't bulldoze, and then quietly back off to Plan B, which they've had in the wings all along. It's the only way Steve Ballmer knows how to do it.

caw

[benbradley]

And doesn't Microsoft have about a bazillion software patents of their own... I read where Microsoft has a patent on a ring buffer, a concept that's been "going around" <ahem> for many decades.

Doesn't matter if a patent is really original or not thesedays, in recent decades one can patent just about anything, and companies, especially larger ones, have taken great advantage of the situation. It allows them to start pissing contests like this one.