| On 12.23.09, In Uncategorized, by deep |
The use of XML technology in Microsoft’s Office 2007 had landed them in court regarding the infringement of patent law. The Canadian Company i4i, had filed a law suit against the Microsoft. The legal battle had forced Microsoft to stop the Office 2007’s sales. But beside the loss in legal battle, Microsoft have confirmed that they will not stop the sales, instead they will bring out the new non-infringement version of the software. The legal battle has been settled at $290 million.
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The forthcoming Office 2010 and Word 2010 do not use the technology that was the subject of the dispute.
The solution could be simply removing the infringing code, which involves using customer XML data in Word documents. Microsoft might develop a non-infringing way to implement the feature. Or maybe it will buy i4i and its intellectual property, solving the patent problem that way.
However, even if Microsoft did nothing, courts are unlikely to stop sales of such an important product, according to my colleague, Tony Bradley.
The 2007 lawsuit, challenged Microsoft’s use of XML technology covered by a patent awarded to i4i. Microsoft lost in federal district court in East Texas, and lost again before a three-judge appeals panel.
Source : PcWorld
Image Source : maximumpc, flickr
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