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Microsoft blocked from selling Word
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The following comments relate to this news article:
article published on 13 August, 2009
In a giant decision today, a federal district court judge has ruled against Microsoft, and told the software company it must stop selling the extremely popular Word word processing software in the United States.
The victor company, i4i, has only 30 employees but claims Microsoft violated a patent pertaining to Extensible Markup Language (XML). The judge agreed.
Microsoft has 60 days ... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
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warriorp
Junior Member
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13. August 2009 @ 00:54 |
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damn thats messed up for real.
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varnull
Suspended permanently
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13. August 2009 @ 01:00 |
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Quality .. just quality. For way too long M$ have walked over the little people .. This is just one company holding a valid patent they missed buying out and closing down. I guess they didn't think a company with 30 employees would find a good lawyer huh?
Now then.. patent infringement.. lets see a punitive damages settlement to the same scale as the mafiaa and co like to do to little people.. how about 150,000 per infringement.. or basically $150,000 for every copy of word or office sold... hahahahahaha
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Member
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13. August 2009 @ 01:44 |
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Interesting news. I don't care if MS stops selling word, and honestly if they do, I hope OpenDocument format can finally start getting a lot more usage. But the thing is Microsoft is dirty and will do anything for money. This is a serious blow for them but they will find a way to sell Word legally again IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. Losing the ability to sell software they have sold since the 80's? Not on Microsoft's watch.
However, this is another stupid lawsuit over software patents. When is the USPTO (and several other countries' patent offices) going to realise they made a serious mistake in allowing them?
And who is i4i? Some patent troll company obviously. 'Customised XML' patent? That's ridiculous. Every single format utilising XML (including XHTML, OpenDocument, and so many other DOCTYPEs) is 'customised XML'. They might as well try suing the Internet.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. August 2009 @ 01:45
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Senior Member
4 product reviews
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13. August 2009 @ 03:08 |
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i find it interesting that it only effects word 2003 and up. interesting as there hasn't been any change to words mechanics since word 2000 except for eye candy.
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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13. August 2009 @ 03:18 |
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Originally posted by DXR88:
i find it interesting that it only effects word 2003 and up. interesting as there hasn't been any change to words mechanics since word 2000 except for eye candy.
Actualy, word changed a little in 2003, and changed a lot in 2007.
Microsoft will fix this quickly, they are not going to launch office 14 without word.
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beanos66
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13. August 2009 @ 04:08 |
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$290 million ? they'll find that down the back of bill' settee
Originally posted by tatsh:
snip
And who is i4i? Some patent troll company obviously. 'Customised XML' patent? That's ridiculous. Every single format utilising XML (including XHTML, OpenDocument, and so many other DOCTYPEs) is 'customised XML'. They might as well try suing the Internet.
"Michel Vulpe, founder of i4i and inventor of the patent". the company actually sells document management and publishing soloutions
they are not the sort of organisation that buys companies with lots of patents and then sits on them 'til somebody breaches the patents
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. August 2009 @ 04:12
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Junior Member
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13. August 2009 @ 05:36 |
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Thats ridiculous!!! Word is a cornerstone of Microsoft office, it just isnt the same without it
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Lothros
Junior Member
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13. August 2009 @ 07:02 |
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People use M$ Office?
Lrn2OpenOffice People!
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Mysttic
Senior Member
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13. August 2009 @ 07:03 |
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Basically MS will try to appeal first as stated in this article; should the appeal fail in their favor, then they will simply make the next word with out XML format or they will spend money to get the rights to use it. The thing is, they are only told to stop selling the current standard for Word from '03-07 versions, so obviously they have room to revision, even the old ones if they wish to. Hell, you'd think an Office Update would suffice.
Still its good to see that MS gets walked on to from time to time.
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Mez
AfterDawn Addict
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13. August 2009 @ 07:10 |
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I enjoy this one!
M$ thought they could bulldose the company instead of paying the royalities or altering their technology.
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xtwister
Newbie
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13. August 2009 @ 08:06 |
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Good. Microsoft steals everyones idea and gets away with it because of loopholes in patents or no patents. They are a bully with all their lawyers and money. Microsoft wipes out all they smaller software developers by imbeding their own version of that software in their OS. If the appeal fails MS will just buy out the patent. But at least they will have to finally pay for it!
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13. August 2009 @ 08:09 |
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MS should just come to a settlement i4i and close the issue.
When you're making billions on a program you can afford to toss a couple of million to get them off your back.
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Coyote42
Newbie
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13. August 2009 @ 08:50 |
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Maybe this will teach Microsoft to not change their formats for no apparent reason. Honestly, why should people have to upgrade a "word processor"?
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SProdigy
Senior Member
5 product reviews
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13. August 2009 @ 09:40 |
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Originally posted by xtwister:
Good. Microsoft steals everyones idea and gets away with it because of loopholes in patents or no patents. They are a bully with all their lawyers and money. Microsoft wipes out all they smaller software developers by imbeding their own version of that software in their OS. If the appeal fails MS will just buy out the patent. But at least they will have to finally pay for it!
Okay, seriously, this is the MS hater mentality. I know Mac users love their Pages program, but just about any other Word processing app is crap.
This is just another patent troll waiting in the wings. Honestly, Word 2003 violated the XML patent? How long did they know this?
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Jeff101
Newbie
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13. August 2009 @ 09:47 |
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I did a quick search of XLM and hit 20,000,000,000 hits many of the editors. Realy XLM code can be writen in any ansi editor. I could write some code here.
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Lothros
Junior Member
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13. August 2009 @ 10:36 |
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Originally posted by Jeff101:
I did a quick search of XLM and hit 20,000,000,000 hits many of the editors. Realy XLM code can be writen in any ansi editor. I could write some code here.
You mean XML?
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13. August 2009 @ 11:02 |
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I believe M$ should get fined $22,500 for every copy of Word that was sold, it is copy infringement after all...
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xtwister
Newbie
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13. August 2009 @ 11:04 |
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Quote:
Originally posted by xtwister:
Good. Microsoft steals everyones idea and gets away with it because of loopholes in patents or no patents. They are a bully with all their lawyers and money. Microsoft wipes out all they smaller software developers by imbeding their own version of that software in their OS. If the appeal fails MS will just buy out the patent. But at least they will have to finally pay for it!
Okay, seriously, this is the MS hater mentality. I know Mac users love their Pages program, but just about any other Word processing app is crap.
This is just another patent troll waiting in the wings. Honestly, Word 2003 violated the XML patent? How long did they know this?
I dont hate Microsoft. I am just stating when you "borrow" someone else's hard work and put it in your software, you are stealing their work. Microsoft is notorious for these ethics. This time they didnt get away with it. Patents have a reason, to protect the developer/creator.
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Mez
AfterDawn Addict
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13. August 2009 @ 11:08 |
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SProdigy, Mac users like anything Apple puts out. They understand their small customer base. I hate M$ as well because I see what they do but they don't screw their users as much as Apple. Apple users LOVE getting screwed.
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varnull
Suspended permanently
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13. August 2009 @ 11:11 |
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If this had been the other way round you can see the scenario.. little business goes bust and people lose their jobs. It's too much to dream in this monopolistic world (and with all it's apologists) that something similar couls ever happen to the big evil that is M$ .. but their day is coming.. mark my words.
Already we are seeing the worlds governments who have switched from M$ lockin starting to enforce the anti-trust rulings.. Once they aren't forced to brown nose they can show their teeth. NO government should ever force it's citizens to use proprietary software to communicate with them.. shame in the UK that isn't the case yet.
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MReprogle
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13. August 2009 @ 11:44 |
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Quote:
Originally posted by DXR88:
i find it interesting that it only effects word 2003 and up. interesting as there hasn't been any change to words mechanics since word 2000 except for eye candy.
Actualy, word changed a little in 2003, and changed a lot in 2007.
Microsoft will fix this quickly, they are not going to launch office 14 without word.
Hasn't changed? They added the ability to publish blogs and publish onto a Doc Management Server (great for me). They also totally redid their spreadsheet function, so you can essentially make Excel files within your Word file.
For school, I constantly use the new citation tool.
There are a bunch more that I don't use often, like the revision pane that lets you track any previous changes. This may save some people big time, but I have yet to use it. Just kind of nice to know it's there I guess..
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Member
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13. August 2009 @ 12:45 |
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Why doesn't Microsoft just buy them
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varnull
Suspended permanently
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13. August 2009 @ 13:16 |
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Originally posted by bam431:
Why doesn't Microsoft just buy them
another person who thinks a global M$ software monopoly is a good thing.. big brother is watching you.. trouble is.. we are legion XD
Why didn't the judge order all existing instances of this infringing software being removed also within 60 days? Theres a puzzle.. just because people have bought something which the seller didn't have rights to doesn't apparently mean they have the right to keep using it. A patch update should be released immediately removing word from all existing M$ office installations... or it's a nonsense
(amazon vs Orwell and kinders.. aren't they chocolate eggs with crappy choke your kids bits of plastic inside?)
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. August 2009 @ 13:17
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Senior Member
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13. August 2009 @ 13:16 |
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Originally posted by Mez:
SProdigy, Mac users like anything Apple puts out. They understand their small customer base. I hate M$ as well because I see what they do but they don't screw their users as much as Apple. Apple users LOVE getting screwed.
Right on the head Mez they are a cult when it comes to Apple products, which is another company that uses similar tactics too M$ in fact at one time they were in bed together.
Google is trying hard to knock M$ off their block and with M$ so high on themselves Google may just pull it off.
Office 2007 is XML riddled so it wouldn?t or shouldn?t just be Word that is kept from being sold. Of course not knowing how many patients there are that apply to XML and what i4i?s patient is, it could well be only Word affected.
The bottom line is like so many others have mention M$ will either pay off, buy out, or win their appeal and get their way in the long run as they always seem to do.
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Mez
AfterDawn Addict
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13. August 2009 @ 13:17 |
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bam431, they didn't buy them because the prefer to screw them. See they did not think they would lose. They probably won the last 99 of these.
varnull, I agree their day is comming. The 'suits' have been running M$ for about 10 years and they are running into the ground. As big as it is it is a very slow process. However, they are declining on most fronts.
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