• Microsoft Banned from Selling Word in the US
    148 replies, posted
[url=http://mashable.com/2009/08/12/word-patent/]Source[/url] [quote]Welcome to the world of surprising patent lawsuits. A Texas judge ruled Tuesday that Microsoft cannot sell Word – yes, Microsoft Word, the cornerstone of Microsoft Office – in the United States. Toronto-based i4i Inc won an injunction against Microsoft regarding the company’s XML patents. In the words of i4i, the injunction “prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML”. Microsoft has been given 60 days to comply, reports Seattle PI. The injunction reads: Microsoft Corporation is hereby permanently enjoined from performing the following actions with Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2007, and Microsoft Word products not more than colorably different from Microsoft Word 2003 or Microsoft Word 2007 (collectively “Infringing and Future Word Products”) during the term of U.S. Patent No. 5,787,449: 1. selling, offering to sell, and/or importing in or into the United States any Infringing and Future Word Products that have the capability of opening a .XML, .DOCX, or .DOCM file (“an XML file”) containing custom XML; 2. using any Infringing and Future Word Products to open an XML file containing custom XML; 3. instructing or encouraging anyone to use any Infringing and Future Word Products to open an XML file containing custom XML; 4. providing support or assistance to anyone that describes how to use any infringing and Future Word Products to open an XML file containing custom XML; and 5. testing, demonstrating, or marketing the ability of the Infringing and Future Word Products to open an XML file containing custom XML. This injunction does not apply to any of the above actions wherein the Infringing and Future Word Products open an XML file as plain text. Needless to say, Microsoft won’t pull Word off the market. The company has said it plans to appeal, and i4i actually sells XML products for Word, making that company reliant on the ecosystem. An agreement will be reached: probably one involving Microsoft signing a big check.[/quote] What the fuck is going on. Rate a Box if you think the Judge is a fucking idiot.
That is the most stupidist thing I have ever heard. Ever.
*facepalm* They are all being idiots.
Guess I'm gonna have to use notepad to do homework then.
You could always use open office
I can't use WORD anymore?... :( Sad, very sad ;(
praise the lord for open office
hahaha that's ridiculous.
Who gives a shit, it's microsoft we're talking here. You can [b]always[/b] do without microsoft products. What, the world stops because we can't use their software? There's always Openoffice, or word perfect. There's probably dozens of text manipulation out there just waiting for us to pick it up. I think I won't lose any sleep over microsoft word being gone. Fuck it.
Only non tech savvy people use Word anyway
software patents lol [QUOTE=mak364;16645930]praise the lord for open office[/QUOTE] open office also violates this "patent"
Eh I still have Office 2007 so whatever.
Isn't xml just some text?
[QUOTE=tacoriffik;16645908]You could always use open office[/QUOTE] it's shit anyway
[QUOTE=qurl;16645993]Only non tech savvy people use Word anyway[/QUOTE] By that you mean people who never leave the computer?
I smell butthurt company.
You idiots shouldn't have laughed at us Europeans when we lost (and subsequently regained) Internet Explorer in Windows 7. I love karma.
[QUOTE=johan svensk;16646035]it's shit anyway[/QUOTE] But free.
[QUOTE=Wiggles;16646047]You idiots shouldn't have laughed at us Europeans when we lost (and subsequently regained) Internet Explorer in Windows 7. I love karma.[/QUOTE] That, only that Word is more important than IE, a lot more important (FF is better than IE anyways, but you can hardly find stuff better than Word).
I really don't care about all of this. As long as I can still work in my Office 2007 (which I bought myself), I don't care. Microsoft still has all of their other products, and they may attempt to countersue or some other fun stuff.
This only encourages software piracy honestly.
[QUOTE=johan svensk;16646035]it's shit anyway[/QUOTE] It's near enough identical to word only with different logos.
Also they aren't barred from selling word, they are barred from selling any version of word that opens XML documents.
[QUOTE=Wiggles;16646047]You idiots shouldn't have laughed at us Europeans when we lost (and subsequently regained) Internet Explorer in Windows 7. I love karma.[/QUOTE] I was laughing at Microsofts legal team for not paying attention to local laws.
[quote]Needless to say, Microsoft won’t pull Word off the market. The company has said it plans to appeal, and i4i actually sells XML products for Word, making that company reliant on the ecosystem. An agreement will be reached: probably one involving Microsoft signing a big check.[/quote] Do you people even read this stuff?
Why are you people worried about Word going away? They are just going to make it so Word cannot be used to open XML.
[QUOTE=Lankist;16646114]Also they aren't barred from selling word, they are barred from selling any version of word that opens XML documents.[/QUOTE] Which you can open in notepad if you know how to
snip
[QUOTE=markg06;16646130]I was laughing at Microsofts legal team for not paying attention to local laws.[/QUOTE] This isn't local laws, this is the patent holder of the XML file format suing Microsoft for Word using that format.
[QUOTE=johan svensk;16646035]it's shit anyway[/QUOTE] There's hardly a difference.
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