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MS Word: Live by the patent, die by the patent? (rant)

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Carol Haynes:
I don't think it would kill the U.S., and may not even hurt it much
-steeladept (August 19, 2009, 07:39 AM)
--- End quote ---

I don't know - if MS pulled the kill switch on Windows (which it could easily do via in Vista since it has a kill switch, and through the backdoor in Windows XP that they use to illegally install 'updates') practically the whole of the US economy would stop over night.

40hz:
Well...Microsoft could always just buy i4i and render the whole thing moot.

I'm wondering if that's i4i's strategy behind filing suit in the first place...

Look how well it's worked for SCO. Their case is still dragging on despite the fact the courts have already ruled SCO doesn't hold any patents which SCO continues to claim are being infringed on.

Gotta love the American legal system.  :wallbash:

 8)

zridling:
Problem is, it's far more difficult to overturn a patent than most think. If it were easy, lots of patents would be overturned each month. Microsoft has made things worse by not dealing with this, thus the judge hit them with an additional $40mn in "enhanced damages" for Microsoft's "willful infringement." All together, the court has raised Microsoft's fines from $200mn to $290.6mn. Starting a long appeals process will likely bring more damages to Microsoft's bottom line.

Here's the crazy irony. All the gymnastics Microsoft went through to get MS-OOXML approved as an ISO standard may be awash. If they had only went with ODF, no infringement would have occurred.
________________________________________________
Here is the patent if you're curious.

Still, in the end, as Stoic Joker and steeladept noted: PATENTS KILL INNOVATION.

f0dder:
zridling: I've not read the patent (I'm not so good with legalese), but how would going with ODF have saved MS? ODF also uses XML. But perhaps the patent was made specifically to target the way MS uses XML in OOXML?

Both formats are retarded anyway, compared to the efficiency of dealing with efficient binary formats (like .DOC). Ever tried saving a several-hundred page document in either of the XML based formats? yuck!

40hz:

zridling: ... but how would going with ODF have saved MS? ODF also uses XML.
-f0dder (August 20, 2009, 05:08 AM)
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I can't remember where I read it, but i4i has supposedly stated that ODF is not infringing on their patent. Which is interesting...

But perhaps the patent was made specifically to target the way MS uses XML in OOXML?-f0dder (August 20, 2009, 05:08 AM)
--- End quote ---

Interesting idea. Although how i4i could have done that before Microsoft came up with MS-OOXML is anybody's guess.  ;)

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