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Texas Judge: Microsoft Word Can't be Sold in U.S. Due to Patent Violation
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Jason Mick/DailyTech
August 12, 2009
Microsoft’s Office 2003 and 2007 wove XML into Word, with the introduction of .docx, otherwise known as Office Open XML, as the format of choice. The new format brought an open standard and better storage to the application. Unfortunately, it also turned into one of the company’s biggest legal headaches.
In making Office, Microsoft implemented technology seeming covered under a 1998 patent (No. 5,787,449) by a developer of collaborative-based content solutions, Toronto-based i4i. The patent covered “manipulating a document’s content and architecture separately.”
A Texas federal court ruled in May that Microsoft had infringed on the i4i’s patents and ordered Microsoft to pay $200M USD in unpaid royalties. Microsoft was reportedly hurt in the proceedings by a published trail of emails that indicated that the company knew that it was infringing on i4i’s work. Microsoft disagreed strongly with the verdict and promised to fight it in appeals court.
Now a US District Court of Eastern Texas judge, Judge Leonard Davis, has ordered sales of Microsoft Word in the U.S. banned until a final judgment is reached. The injunction also came with an order for Microsoft to pay an additional $40M USD for willful infringement, $37M USD in prejudgement interest, and $21,102 per day in additional fines. The court also is asking that Microsoft hand over $144,060 a day, until the final judgment and damages are paid (though it may get some of this money back).
Until the final decision is reached, Microsoft is banned from selling any version of Microsoft Office containing copies of Word that can open .XML, .DOCX, or DOCM files containing custom XML. Microsoft has a mere 60 days to comply with the injunction.
With Office being one of Microsoft’s staple products, and with the .docx format being the current default format, an appeal seems inevitable. Microsoft has not issued a formal response yet to ban on Word sales.
© 2009, DailyTech
bcyoder
3 months ago
18 comments
So does that mean that you cant use Word anymore or what? Sorry but im not going to stop using a product just because the company messed up. I have open office and MS word but I really dont want to switch over now when all this is not our fault.
mattoni87
3 months ago
20 comments
id say make Microsoft pay, but for them to not allow them to sell word. thats just dumb. Every office that has Word i4i could make money off of it. In long run more than what they are getting from Microsoft in the courts.
Not sayin Microsoft was just or defending them, but in the eyes of money and the economy, just smarter idea.
Open Office for the win!
rcszigeti
3 months ago
6 comments
woo, very costly for MS this is certainly.
PureEvil
3 months ago
196 comments
LOL, wow, well at least there is open office. love the article.
Matthew_Booker
3 months ago
10 comments
There are better productivity applications available than Microsoft Office, make no mistake, but, there again, there are also WORSE, and less user-friendly products available, and it seems to me that whoever filed the complaints and pursuant charges, if they were REALLY true, keeping in mind that Microsoft Word has been out for over 20 years, and Office has been out for over 15 years, it would seem that someone would have said and done something before now.
Granted this is not the first legal issue Microsoft has had, remembering back to to the anti-trust suits from a few years ago, but if the complaints and charges stemming from this issue were really true, doesn't it seem kinda odd that no one said or did anything before now?
slburkey
3 months ago
68 comments
All the more reason for everyone to dump MS Office! Why people continue to use that over-written, over-wrought pile of crap is beyond me. Do yourself a favor - download OpenOffice.org Productivity Suite. Its FREE - it has 1/3 the footprint on your HD of MS Office - the average file takes 1/2 to 1/4 the amount of storage that the exact same file does in MS format. You can customize the software to include tons of macros and add-ons, as well as writing your own - and it's stable, secure... and did I mention FREE. Of course, if using a free Open Source product bothers you, you are always welcome to donate some of your hard-earned cash.
OK, enough of the sarcasm. The simple fact is, I have used OO.org exclusively for over 8 years. If I must prepare a document for someone still using MS Office, all I have to do is click "save as" and select the appropriate version of MS file format to save in. The only problem I've ever experienced was a brief episode where certain tables wouldn't line up the same way. That issue has long been resolved, and only took the OO.org community a matter of weeks to do so. When was the last time you saw Microsoft move that fast? Never!
atsysusa
3 months ago
24 comments
60 minutes is too long a reprieve. Microsoft knowingly willfully violated the patent. Knowingly and Willfully are the key words here. Rewriting the software is not the issue.
digioz
3 months ago
112 comments
Wow! 60 days aren't going to be enough to re-write any of the source code for MS Word, so they are going to have to pay the fine. I don't think they can afford for MS Word sales to be blocked for any length of time!
Pete