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Microsoft Appeal Fails, Ban on Office and Word to Commence Jan. 11th

by Warren Riddle on December 22, 2009 at 05:15 PM

Last summer, when U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis ordered Microsoft to permanently shelve Word (and pay a whopping $290 million in damages), some analysts dismissed the ruling as a publicity stunt. Microsoft just received a swift and powerful kick to the groin, though, as the decision has reportedly been upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

According to Engadget, Microsoft only has until January 11th, when the Word and Office ban (which won't apply to already-purchased versions) officially begins. The original suit sprang from claims that Microsoft violated a 1998 patent held by XML specialists i4i. (XML is a language designed for formatting documents, and the specific patent-violating culprit is a Microsoft add-in that allows Word users to edit XML files.)

Microsoft has released a statement assuring customers that it has been prepared for the ruling, which it says only affects Word and Office 2007. According to the release, add-in free versions of both will be available by the 11th, and currently available, beta versions of both Office and Word 2010 do not contain the violating feature. Since Microsoft lost the appeal, though, the next legal step would be to either pursue another appeal or just suck it up and settle with i4i. Whatever happens, Microsoft has probably learned one valuable lesson already: Don't mess with a company that derives its name from biblical acts of violent retribution. [From: Engadget]

Tags: i4i, lawsuit, microsoft, microsoft office, microsoft word, MicrosoftOffice, MicrosoftWord, office, top, word, xml

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