microsoft word to remove XML feature because of patent infringement case
Daniel Schuman
Wednesday, December 23, 2009;
A12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122203107_pf.html
Ruling doesn't spell doom for Microsoft Word
Pay no attention to headlines predicting that Microsoft Word will be banished from store shelves on Jan. 11 because of a patent ruling.
The widely used word processor isn't going anywhere; nor does Tuesday's ruling by the D.C.-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit represent any sort of earth-shattering development in patent law.
Tuesday's ruling upholds a judge's injunction issued after a district court jury found that a feature in Word 2007, and the Office 2007 suite that includes Word, infringed a patent held by i4i, a Toronto software developer.
The feature in question governs how programs deal with a specialized data format called XML, short for extensible markup language. It's arguable, as Computerworld writer Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes, that i4i never should have received this patent in the first place. But there also seems to be solid evidence that Microsoft knew about i4i's work before adding these features to Word.
Either way, though, Microsoft is already moving to get out of the box the court's ruling put it in. In a statement issued earlier Tuesday, the company said it "had put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature" from Word before the Jan. 11 deadline. The statement added that Microsoft's upcoming Word 2010 and Office 2010 "do not contain the technology covered by the injunction."
So here's the upshot: Microsoft spends some time and money removing a feature most people don't use but doesn't have to stop selling its product, i4i gets a moment in the headlines and a decent payday, patent lawyers rack up billable hours, and most consumers never notice the difference.
Daniel Schuman
Policy Counsel | Sunlight Foundation
Twitter: danielschuman | 202-713-5795
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
claimed to be infringing? best, Joe
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Joseph Lorenzo Hall
ACCURATE Postdoctoral Research Associate
UC Berkeley School of Information
Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy
http://josephhall.org/
Josh Tauberer
http://amys.typepad.com/amy_wohls_opinions/2009/08/utter-xml-confusion.html
As I understand the explanation, this particular case is pretty narrow.
- Josh Tauberer
- CivicImpulse
http://razor.occams.info
http://www.civicimpulse.com
"Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation! Yields
falsehood when preceded by its quotation!" Achilles to
Tortoise (in "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter)
Daniel Schuman
U.S. Court of Appeals, DC Circuit, i4i v. Microsoft, case no. 2009-1504
* December 22 decision: http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions/09-1504.pdf
* September 3 stay of injunction pending decision: http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions/09-1504so.pdf (note that here the Court erroneously has listed i4i (eye-four-eye) as 141 (one-four-one) in the database
Federal district court for the eastern district of Texas, i4i v. Microsoft, case no. 07-CV-113
* August 11th final judgment: http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/texas/txedce/6:2007cv00113/101834/414/
* Case docket (for earlier rulings); http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-txedce/case_no-6:2007cv00113/case_id-101834/
Here's ISI's press release from August: http://www.i4i.com/collateral/08_12_09_release-judge_upholds_verdict_favoring_i4i_against_Microsoft.pdf
Here's a notice from OEM (Microsoft's partner) regarding a patch to remove the custom XML: http://oem.microsoft.com/script/contentpage.aspx?pageid=563214
Daniel