Interesting…
The BBC reports on what could be a nasty bit of business for M$: Judge bans Microsoft Word sales
A US federal court has ordered Microsoft to pay over $290m (£175m) for wilfully infringing on a patent by Canadian firm i4i.
The patent relates to the use of XML, a programming language that allows formatting of text and makes files readable across different programs.
XML is integral to Microsoft’s flagship word processing software Word.
Texas district court judge Leonard Davis also filed an injunction preventing Microsoft from selling Word.
The row specifically relates to the use of Extensible Mark-up Language, or XML, documents.
I4i filed a patent in 1998 that outlined a means for “manipulating the architecture and the content of a document separately from each other” invoking XML as a means allowing users to format text documents.
The write up is a bit confusing about what is involved. I4i developed algorithms for converting text formatted in different formats. It looks like they separate the actual text from the formatting and store the two parts in different tables. This enables the text to be formatted the same way, regardless of the source of the formatting directives table used. The concept is simple to understand, but not always simple to implement, especially if you want to do it for a large number of formats.
11 comments
Hah!! Yea verrily! 😉 I was one of several who predicted this some time ago, just after office 2007 was launched. 😀
It apparently relates back to later versions of word 2003 when The Pirates of M$ began enhancing Word’s ability to handle XML and various format conversions, something which M$ Word was atrocious at previously (and still is for the most part).
Couldn’t happen to a bigger bunch of crooks. 😀
Of course, you have the usual bunch of sensationalist morons decrying this as a ploy to bring down M$. It amuses me because they must not think much of m$ if they think a paltry $230m suit will bring down M$! LMAO I wish! The Dweeb wouldn’t even miss that out of his own personal petty-cash tin. Though I am certain he knows top the last penny exactly how much he has at any given time. He truly reminds me of the old Scrooge McDuck comics. 😆
I’m always suspicious when an upgrade from M$ suddenly has an amazing capability that it lacked earlier. I naturally assume that they ripped someone off, because it has happened so often in the past.
This was just arrogant. There are a multitude of techniques to accomplish the same goal, it was just stupid to rip these guys off. If they had discovered the process independently, they would have a logical set of versions to back their claim. The fact that the judge ruled against them tends to make me believe that it was a straight theft, because the judge has a fairly devastating solution in place.
On the business side, it would have been cheaper to just license the code, but they are cheap.
A few hundred million is pocket change, although the lawyers’ fees will add significantly to the cost.
It has been a schadenfreude kind of day.
License someone else’s code? You mean… you think King Billy, His Royal Pirate Dweebness should *actually* pay for someone else’s IP and work?? :O Wow! That’s kind of a… ummmm… a rather… errrrrmmmm… Hmmm. No… Sorry Bryan… I just CANNOT get my head around that concept. The Pirate Dweeb who doth protest too much, paying rather than stealing! LOL Unless you were being amusing? In which case… Very well done! Ya got me! LOL It’s a rather novel concept! 😀
Schadenfreude indeed. Though, I doubt the Pirate Dweeb is suffering from this at all. One needs nerves or a soul and a conscience to feel any pain. I’m sure he simple began scheming a scheme to relieve some other poor sucker(s) of much more than a few hundred mill, which would have immediately brightened the Pirate Dweebs day.
I did get a smile the other day when I saw a report that a high-level internal memo was leaked that M$ are actually scared of Linux (on the desktop). It does one’s soul good. 😀
Ahhhh… what I wouldn’t give to see the little Pirate Dweeb squirm!! 😈
In a friend-of-a-friend link, the guys in applications [Office, etc] are really ticked that they can’t do Linux products, and some of them are compensated based on sales, and know they could push a lot of product to the Linux community. They aren’t exactly fans of the system line, as bad decisions and screw ups in the Window shop hoses development in the applications shop, and they are supposed to be independent profit centers. All of the work on Vista was flushed when it flopped.
Hell, they bought most of their system utilities from Symantec, so it isn’t like they never do it.
The fun part is that the EU will be back on their case over this, and those guys don’t need campaign contributions.
They lost this case in a court in Texas to a Canadian plaintiff, that should tell them that the wind is no longer blowing their way.
I hate Word. I think I’ve said that a few times before. Heck, I still use Word Perfect.
So naturally this made me lol when I read it this morning. Or maybe it was more of a snicker.
.-= last blog ..Grilled Chicken Kabobs with Rosemary and Garlic =-.
You’re a modernist, Lady Min – I still use WordStar daily.
I have it customize for programming and it deals with pure text in a friendlier fashion than anything M$ ever created.
I use Notepad++.
It’s free, supports all the development languages and format’s I use (especially unix SHell scripts), and is fully customizable. And… it’s free (well, open source). 😉 I even gave a donation. It was well worth it. The only thing I’d donate to M$, is for the Dweebs funeral. 😈
I do use OpenOffice of course if I need to do any WP etc. 🙂
I just downloaded Notepad + + the other day, sorry I didn’t find it sooner. It’s pretty awesome. 🙂
I use Notepad++ when I need to do standard or quick code/script editing. For more advanced work (mainly on (X)HTML, CSS, XML or PHP) I use HateML Pro. Mainly because it’s an IDE with some advanced features such as debugging, profiling and a built-in MySQL manager (I unfortunately have to use MySQL for several projects *sigh*). And it’s *free* too! 😉 😀
There are some great Open Source tools out there these days. 🙂
Oh! I should also have mentioned another great development tool (actually, a tool suite): Beerwin’s World of Stuff – PlainHTML. I will admit that I first tried it because of the name! 😉 😆 But it’s actually a very good suite of web development tools and editors. And, need I say… It’s freeeeeee! 😀
Have fun! 😀
I stay with what works for me. The M$ software I have came on the computer, which was well below cost because of an HP employee discount on a machine that was discontinued for marketing reasons. It was basically, shipping costs and licensing fees, so I was too cheap to turn it down, as I needed the OS upgrade and was looking at having to actually buy the software at retail [what a repulsive thought] because of a client requirement. I got the machine and software for half of what the software was going to cost. This business is insane.