Texas Judge Says Microsoft Can't Sell Word
Posted 08/12/09 at 03:30:20 PM by Paul Lilly
A Texas Judge on Tuesday ordered Microsoft to stop "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." The injunction is the result of a complaint filed by Toronto-based i4i alleging Microsoft of violating its 1998 patent (No. 5,787,449) on a method for reading XML.
"We are disappointed by the court's ruling," Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz said in a statement. "We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid. We will appeal the verdict."
The Judge also ordered Microsoft pay i4i $240 million in damages plus court costs and interest. All tallied, the fine is estimated to be more than $290 million.
As it currently stands, the ruling, which applies to Word 2003 and Word 2007, takes effect in 60 days.
they patented a method
Submitted by nadako on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 9:05pm
my question is why? why would you patent a programing method good thing gameing compenies dont patent there code methods or there will be lawsuits everywhere! I dont think you should be able to patent a programing method because down the line there will be a one method its like patenting physics equations. just give the guy some credit dam.
Copyright, Patent & Torts based in the 18th century
Submitted by VaMage on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 9:36am
I am the last guy on earth to cry for MS, but this represents a much bigger issue. The world's patent, copyright, and tort laws all come from a world where the most complex piece of technology was the the steam engine.
This archaic system is costing all of us vast sums of money, because believe me those costs ALWAYS get passed on to the consumer, there simply isn't any where else for them to go.
It's not just patent law, which is allowing companies to patent the human genome, and even allowed some idiot in France to patent the wheel, yes the French patent office granted him the patent, it's also copyright law, and tort reform.
Supposedly we have a health care crisis in the U.S., it's really more like a litigation crisis. Do you know what percentage of your medical bill is due to tort cases? That is malpractice insurance, lawyers fees, lost productivity as Doctor's spend increasing amounts of time in court, tests done and procedure preformed just to cover the Doc's ass, and awards that make it the greatest lottery the world has ever seen.
For a clue about why none of this will change check the percentage of all elected officials, from county to country, that are lawyers. Take a good look at the award systems for personal injury or loss in Europe, and you'll find this vast difference in our cost structures, now realize what percentage of that difference goes to the lawyers.
If fact, a lawyer serving in any legislative body is the most obvious conflict of interest you can imagine, yet everyone from our President down to your county commissioner, are lawyers. Think about it for a minute, a lawyer in the legislature gets to literally create, no mandate, demand for his own profession. It is INSANE. Yet we keep electing lawyers, talk about setting the fox to guard the coup.
VaMage
American by Birth, But Southern by the Grace of God.
I think
Submitted by MeTo on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 9:04am
I think if microsoft knowingley and willfully violated patent they should have to pay triple. Microsoft is big enough to do a patent search. And this "WE" do it a little differant does not cut it if it achieveses the same goal.
This happens more
Submitted by MeTo on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 6:25am
This happens more than we know. Microsoft is such a large company they should do a patent search. But no they say will pay them later when we get caught. Get a clue people.
Quick, get me a box of tissues
Submitted by jechaucer on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 7:58pm
Oh, what a shame for M$.
All these anti-Microsoft
Submitted by Walnut on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 5:10pm
All these anti-Microsoft lawsuits are getting old. Yes, they are the big kid on the block. Fact is, they're offering a product that people seem to agree is the best OS available. They simply appeal to more computer users than anyone else, and this makes them a target. I'm no MS fanboy, but most of this nonsense is petty. Some judge decides to ban MS Word? And what about all of the people who paid good money for it? Who does this guy think he is? This just screams "hey im a judge look at me."
you know what it is? I
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 5:24pm
you know what it is?
I think all this goverments are trying to make the big fortune five hundred companies to bail out their economies.
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BOHICA
Submitted by alanmc76 on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 6:20pm
Yeah, and guess who pays for those bailouts - we do. Who pays the federal judge's salary - we do. All this, after we paid for the d*** product to begin with. Yep, the middle-class-tax-paying-citizen takes it in the shorts again. Who wins? The lawyers. Man, I should be going to law school...
_________________________________________
-- "What am I, MacGyver? Fix it with what?"--
Patent trolls
Submitted by gendoikari1 on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 3:21pm
i4i seems to be just like Rambus (trying to bring down larger companies due to some arbitrary patents they filed in the 90s), except sadly they managed to not have their cases thrown out of court (due to rational judges). Banning Word from the US is like banning, say, all iPhones from the US. Sure, there are alternatives, but the one banned is the one most people use and are unwilling to switch from (so their phone/word processor would become obsolete in a few years and they can't buy the new version).
what about Adobe
Submitted by alanmc76 on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 3:05pm
What about Adobe, OpenOffice, and every internet browser on the market? They all read XML too. XML is the de-facto standard these days. This could kill every major software suite vendor in business. But that's okay because the gov't will just bail them out too.
_________________________________________
-- "What am I, MacGyver? Fix it with what?"--
Does this affect any other pieces of software?
Submitted by Morichalion on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 3:01pm
Would this ruling affect any other pieces of software? I use Open Office on a regular basis. I wonder if that would fall under the same patent.
The world was ruled by religion, and they call it "The Dark Ages"
What does it mean for the
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 1:33pm
What does it mean for the end consumer? Are we goign to be held accountable for buying word 03/07?
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
not good
Submitted by alanmc76 on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 3:25pm
Not good things. Remember that poor college kid that just got hauled off to a DHS darkroom somewhere for hacking XBoxes? Yep, now they will be after every XML editor in the country. Haha.
__________________________________________
-- "What am I, MacGyver? Fix it with what?"--
All these judges seem to
Submitted by frizzly on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 12:56pm
All these judges seem to want to just destroy the economy of this country. dont they call that terrorism these days?
Frizzly M ejere
"Once you go down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."
Naa, that was terrorism in
Submitted by Tekzel on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 1:41pm
Naa, that was terrorism in the last administration. In this administration it is patriotism.
LOL Frizzly Mejere
Submitted by frizzly on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 5:15am
LOL
Frizzly Mejere
"Once you go down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."
+1 PS: who said that line
Submitted by nekollx on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 9:20am
+1
PS: who said that line about the Bush administrion in your sig. it's movie worthy!
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Only in Texas, isn't this
Submitted by dag1992 on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 12:35pm
Only in Texas, isn't this where Rambus began its crusade a while back?
There was a Byte Rights
Submitted by gendoikari1 on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 2:44pm
There was a Byte Rights column in an old issue that talked about some city in Texas that everyone seems to go to settle patent/copyright issues (like i4i being Toronto-based yet conducting the suit in Texas) because the judges there are very strict about those sorts of things and usually favoring the plaintiff.
Edit: Found it. March 2009 issue. Its the US District Court, Eastern District of Texas, in the town of Marshall, TX (same court as in the story)
Yet another reason for tort
Submitted by dag1992 on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 4:17pm
Yet another reason for tort reform...
And as a startling
Submitted by gendoikari1 on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 7:59pm
And as a startling coincidence, the Game Theory (previous page from Byte Rights) column was about patent trolls.
Maximum PC: Portents of doom?
i Patented that! You ove
Submitted by nekollx on Fri, 08/14/2009 - 8:28am
i Patented that! You ove me $5!
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
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