Linux Format forums

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

guy — Sat Aug 15, 2009 8:14 pm

Author: guy

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 8:14 pm

ollie wrote:

The patent is an old one having been filed in 1994 and issued in 1998, so it may have an impact on OpenOffice.org Writer.

Writer's native ODF doesn't infringe the patent in the same way that Word's proprietary (non-open) extensions to OOXML do. ISTR that Writer does not even implement the violating extension in its OOXML I/O filters, because it is not open. In which case OOo gets off scott free.

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

towy71 — Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:57 pm

Author: towy71

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:57 pm

[quote="guy"]

towy71 wrote:

Please complete the following lame joke:
"'i4i' stands for 'irony for i....'"

Ignoramuses

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

ollie — Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:37 pm

Author: ollie

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:37 pm

The patent is an old one having been filed in 1994 and issued in 1998, so it may have an impact on OpenOffice.org Writer.

Honestly, I think it will be overturned because of the W3C's HTML and CSS being published about the same time but it might be the catalyst that makes the EU reject software patents once and for all.

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

guy — Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:12 pm

Author: guy

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:12 pm

towy71 wrote:

A pox on all their houses

Then help end software patents - give us a hand at swpat.org.

Meanwhile, the Groklaw article makes interesting reading. Microsoft do seem to have been badly bitten by the very patent system they have fought so hard to sustain. (Though I'm not taking bets that Microsoft really will be forced to cripple Word's native OOXML format).

Please complete the following lame joke:
"'i4i' stands for 'irony for i....'"

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

donoreo — Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:03 pm

Author: donoreo

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:03 pm

I just want to say, it is a Canadian company that won this, so far. Front page news here on the Toronto Star today.

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

Dutch_Master — Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:44 pm

Author: Dutch_Master

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:44 pm

It would, woundn't it? But it's still usable though: send schools a letter stating that M$ lost in court and either abandon Word or change it significantly beyond compatability with older versions and that you're authorised to offer them a free alternative. And while they're at it, you can also offer them an Open Source school-IT environment In other words (pun intended ): beat M$ with their own weapons: FUD

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

linuxgirlie — Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:03 am

Author: linuxgirlie

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:03 am

Shame it's not in the UK, what an easy way to get schools to convert to OpenOffice

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

AndyBaxman — Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:31 am

Author: AndyBaxman

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:31 am

johnhudson wrote:

I tried to find more details about the alleged infringement and it appears there may be prior art in WordStar which allowed you create and manipulate description files separately from content files. But then MS would never want to admit that it had borrowed something from WordStar.

It relates to MS's XML document formats. IIRC something to do with the ability to self-define an XML schema within the document. A company called i4i, apparently, patented it.

So not in WordStar, WordPerfect, etc, though Open Office uses XML documents.

Wouldn't it be ironic if OO came to MS's rescue?!

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

johnhudson — Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:08 am

Author: johnhudson

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:08 am

I tried to find more details about the alleged infringement and it appears there may be prior art in WordStar which allowed you create and manipulate description files separately from content files. But then MS would never want to admit that it had borrowed something from WordStar.

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

nordle — Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:29 pm

Author: nordle

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:29 pm

Quote:

Microsoft Corp. has reached a patenting milestone by logging its 5,000th patent granted in the United States.

Really, that seems amazingly low. 500,000 is surely nearer the mark.

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

LeeNukes — Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:21 pm

Author: LeeNukes

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:21 pm

I thought IBM was the biggest Patent bitch.

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

towy71 — Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:32 pm

Author: towy71

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:32 pm

Rhakios wrote:

And do any other office suites or word processors infringe this patent?

Only in the US, probably

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

Rhakios — Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:22 pm

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:22 pm

And do any other office suites or word processors infringe this patent?

Re: Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

towy71 — Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:21 pm

Author: towy71

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:21 pm

Aye but the pirate versions will circulate for years

Mind you the final sentence of the article is pertinent:

Quote:

U.S. patent law and enforcement has become a disgrace, and each such 'victory' drives up the cost of technology for all of us and makes real innovation ever harder to achieve.

Who is the worst patent bandit?

Quote:

Microsoft Corp. has reached a patenting milestone by logging its 5,000th patent granted in the United States.

That is from one of their own websites

A pox on all their houses

Microsoft Can No Longer Sell Word (well from October)

LeeNukes — Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:06 pm

Author: LeeNukes

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:06 pm

Source http://blogs.computerworld.com/14532/microsoft_banned_from_selling_word

Quote:

Microsoft had been sued by i4i, a collaborative content solution and technology company....

On May 20th 2009, Judge Davis and his court's jury ruled that Microsoft owed i4i a $200 million patent infringement verdict for having infringed on i4i's "A system and method for the separate manipulation of the architecture and content of a document, particularly for data representation and transformations,"...

Microsoft didn't settle.

on August 11, he signed the order that blocks Microsoft from selling Word. According to the document, "This injunction becomes effective 60 days from the date of this order." So, on or about October 12th, Word, and Microsoft Office since all versions contain it, will go off store shelves.