Microsoft loses patent appeal; Word and Office to be barred from sale starting January 11
By Nilay Patel 
posted December 22nd 2009 1:35PM
posted December 22nd 2009 1:35PM
P.S.- Just to be clear on this, i4i isn't a patent troll -- it's a 30 person database design company that shipped one of the first XML plugins for Office and was actually responsible for revamping the entire USPTO database around XML to make it compatible with Word back in 2000. What's more, the patents involved here don't cover XML itself, but rather the specific algorithms used to read and write custom XML -- so OpenOffice users can breathe easy, as i4i has said the suite doesn't infringe. Existing Office users should also be fine, as only future sales of Word are affected by the ruling, not any already-sold products.
Engadget: Helping you flame with accuracy.
Update: Microsoft says it's moving quickly to prepare versions of Office 2007 and Word 2007 that don't have the "little-used" XML features for sale by January 11, and that the Office 2010 beta "does not contain the technology covered by the injunction," which can be read in a number of ways. It's also considering an appeal, so we'll see what happens next.
Considering that this is probably the one in a billion patent infringement case that actually has merit, couldn't you have posted the postscript in huge, bold red font or something? I suspect people are reading the headline and jumping right into the comments.
Things like algorithms are supposed to be un-patentable if they are the single or one of only a few ways of expressing solving a problem.
If you patent an algorithm, you are a patent troll.
What confuses me is that they promote that Office can use XML.
"x4o is i4i's response to the overwhelming complexity of implementing an XML authoring solution. x4o comprises three modules:
x4o Author - a real-time XML (or SGML) authoring tool in Microsoft Word. With x4o Author, creating a document is as straightforward as selecting the appropriate template (any DTD or Schema & a stylesheet) and authoring as you would in Microsoft Word.
x4o Designer - an XML template design tool. If you don't use a custom or industry standard DTD, simply create one using the familiar Microsoft Word interface of x4o Designer and already learned Microsoft Word skills.
x4o CMS Connector - a CMS/DMS connector that makes check-in and check-out as simple as File Open and File Save."
http://www.i4i.com/x4o.htm
Seems like, they are suing MS just for money, if I was MS I would start to make sure everything they use, is either patent free, developed in house, or make sure they have licensing agreement contracts.
I'm not Anti MS, or Pro MS, but this is getting out of hand the amount of companies/goverments are suing MS...
If all these companies/gove's keep, suing like this there wont be bussiness, some may say yay no more MS but that would mean allot of people would be out work, allot of decent products would go, no more Xbox 360...
Oh, and from what I gather XML is a open standard...
I don't like how this is looking, seems i4i, just let everyone use it, and then one big company used it, and decided lets sue.
oh well. Good thing I use Apple Pages 09
why dont they try and buy the rights to the patent? Or better yet why dont they buy the company I mean they are Microsoft?
I just put in a patent for capitalism...I will only charge royalties of 1% to anyone who uses it.
Have a good day.
Good to see that microsoft is still trying to act like a monopoly. That's what Balmer calls innovation.
@(Unverified)
Office pretty much does have a monopoly on the document format, and is still the most innovative one out there. OpenOffice and Google Docs are trying to catch up to Office, not the other way around.
Hah, awesome xD.
At least the Office 2010 beta doesn't have it - it's what I'm running, after all.
Anybody else see the irony of all this? I understand the value of xml, and why it was a useful "feature" to sell into a Word upgrade, but we all know the real reason for .docx is yet another hostile, aggrivating way for Microsoft to bully users into upgrading to the new version. "Crud! I can't open .docx files, and downloading converter utilities confuse me, I guess I have to buy a GD Word upgrade."
Serves them right, the bullies. .docx my .asx
Why doesn't Microsoft just "fix" this with a Windows update to patch Office? Just disable the XML algorithm that is infringing on the patent and replace it with something else with an update. That just seems easier I would think. This is probably a pretty big deal to get this fixed for Microsoft, since like 98 percent of people on this planet use the Office suite.
As usual MS got out of this mess with no penalty whatsoever..