On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 3:59 PM, Dhiraj Gaur <dhiraj.g...@gmail.com> wrote:
> A United States judge on Tuesday ordered Microsoft > <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=microsoft> Corporation to > stop selling Microsoft Word in its current form in the US as it infringes > upon a patent owned by a Canadian company, i4i. > > Judge Leonard Davis of the US District Court for the Eastern District of > Texas passed an injunction to this effect and has given Microsoft 2 months > within which the software giant must comply with the order. > > A patent infringement lawsuit was filed by i4i in 2007 against Micrsoft. > The > judge on Tuesday forbade Microsoft from selling Word products which let > people create custom XML documents. Microsoft has now been banned from > selling or importing into the US any Word products which can open .XML, > .DOCX, or DOCM files containing custom XML. > > Microsoft Word allows users to create custom XML documents. i4i, based in > Toronto, Canada <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=canada>, > owns US Patent No 5,787,449, which the court said Microsoft had infringed > upon. > > The Texas judge also ordered Microsoft to pay the Toronto-based software > developer $200 million in damages as reasonable royalty. Apart from that, > Microsoft was also told to pay an additional $40 million for willful patent > infringement and another $37 million-plus in interest, taking the total > damages to over $287 million. > > However, reports say that with Microsoft Corporation planning to appeal > against the order, its sales of Word are not likely to be affected. Experts > hint that even if the injunction stands, the software giant could find a > remove the XML functionality from Word or find some other way to bypass the > infringement. > > *The court order:* > > 'Microsoft Corporation is hereby permanently enjoined from performing the > following actions with Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2007, and > Microsoft Word products not more than colorably different from Microsoft > Word 2003 or Microsoft Word 2007 (collectively "Infringing and Future Word > Products") during the term of U.S. Patent No. 5,787,449: > > 1. selling, offering to sell, and/or importing in or into the United States > any Infringing and Future Word Products that have the capability of opening > a .XML, .DOCX, or .DOCM file ("an XML file") containing custom XML; > > 2. using any Infringing and Future Word Products to open an XML file > containing custom XML; > > 3. instructing or encouraging anyone to use any Infringing and Future Word > Products to open an XML file containing custom XML; > > 4. providing support or assistance to anyone that describes how to use any > infringing and Future Word Products to open an XML file containing custom > XML; and > > 5. testing, demonstrating, or marketing the ability of the Infringing and > Future Word Products to open an XML file containing custom XML.' > > > What the hell is this !! This is just another height of absurdness !! This is the best example why patent suck and a lesson for Microsoft too. Whole world is using xml format in various products !! Its a open standard , how can one person have rights to do so !! Cannot we just remove the software patent system itself !!! I cannot live in the digital world with so much restrictions and monology !! -- ┌─────────────────────────┐ │ Narendra Sisodiya ( नरेन्द्र सिसोदिया ) │ R&D Engineer │ Web : http://narendra.techfandu.org │ Twitter : http://tinyurl.com/dz7e4a └─────────────────────────┘ _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
