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Microsoft forced to strip feature from Word

By Reuters

Posted on 23 Dec 2009 at 07:20

Microsoft is having to strip a feature from Word to avoid having the software removed from sale, after losing a long-running patent battle.

The world's largest software company made the announcement shortly after a US court of appeals upheld a $290 million jury verdict against it for infringing a patent held by a small Canadian software firm, i4i.

The court also affirmed an injunction that prevents Microsoft from selling versions of Word that contain the offending software, set to take effect on 11 January 2010. Older versions of Word are not affected.

Microsoft says it's taking steps to remove the feature from Word 2007 and Office 2007 put on sale from that date.

The disputed patent feature relates to the use of customised XML in the 2007 versions of Word. Microsoft has described it as a "little-used feature".

However, the company isn't ruling out further appeals. "While we are moving quickly to address the injunction issue, we are also considering our legal options," claims Kevin Kutz, a Microsoft spokesman. That could include a request for a rehearing by a full panel of judges at the appeals court, or a request for a review by the US Supreme Court.

I4i, the Toronto-based software company which owns the infringed patent, welcomed the ruling. "I4i is especially pleased with the court's decision to uphold the injunction, an important step in protecting the property rights of small inventors," says Michel Vulpe, founder and co-inventor of i4i, in a statement.

Protracted battle

The ruling - by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles many patent and trademark cases - may signal the end-game of a long-running dispute between Microsoft and i4i.

On 12 August, a jury in a federal US district court in Texas ruled in favor of i4i, finding Microsoft guilty of infringing the XML patent in the 2003 and 2007 versions of Word.

The jury slapped more than $290 million in damages on Microsoft and the court granted i4i's motion for an injunction preventing Microsoft from selling versions of Word that contain the disputed patent technology.

That injunction was stayed while Microsoft appealed the case with the Court of Appeals, but will now go into effect on 11 January.

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User comments

To me a patent on what (as far as I can see) is just a slightly different use of XML, an open standard, is something I would question on moral grounds. It seems to be out of the spirit of how the base technology is licensed. Even Microsoft who based their latest Office formats on XML decided to make them an official open standard (even if they were slightly forced into it by customer demand).

Whilst I can find various web pages on this issue I can't work out specifically what is covered by this injunction. From what I can tell there are two technologies Microsoft seem to refer to as Custom XML. One of these technologies I use in some of my customer's software. It allow users to create templates based on a pre-defined set of field and upload them to a server where they can be auto-populated just by inserting an XML document into the word package. The whole thing is very simple, very clean, very efficient and most importantly works reliability. The other technology I understand less (I have no experience with it) but it allows parts of the Word mark-up to be replaced with custom XML. From what I understand both of these technologies are also included in both Excel and PowerPoint so why have these products not been included in the patent battle?

It would be nice to have some decent information from Microsoft over what specifically is effected and what (if any) work around's Microsoft are planning. Whilst I realise that none of this applies to the European market (unless Microsoft chooses) I understand it will apply to office 2010 which already does not have this feature.

By WhiskyFudge on 23 Dec 2009

I'm no expert but

It does seem to me to be against the whole point of open standards if someone can take out a patent preventing it bein used in a certain way.

I thouht the reason that large companies were starting to use thm was to prevent large patents payments like this.

By JStairmand on 23 Dec 2009

What I think the patent said...

I did manage to find the patent when this first came up and attempted to read the thing. So far as I could see, the patent was not about XML at all. Instead (from memory) the "XML" contained not the text of the document but pointers (character displacements) pointing to where the XML tag should be applied in the text.
It seemed to be to be (a) an absurd mechanism because adding something into the middle of real XML is no great issue whereas adding something into the middle of this not-XML needs all the subsequent displacements altering.
(b) hardly a new idea because displacements are how mainframe Assembler locates its data.

By AdrianB on 23 Dec 2009

Glad to see the little guy give M$ the kick it needs for stepping on it :) Lets hope the other little people start kicking up a fuss now too :)

By nicomo on 23 Dec 2009

Yes lets all jump on the bandwagon.
Can't wait to be paying lots more for my software and stuff. As all these costs get dumped the the customer.

By curiousclive on 24 Dec 2009

Other options

@curiousclive: "Can't wait to be paying lots more for my software and stuff. As all these costs get dumped the the customer."

See it as an opportunity to replace MS with a real open and free alternative like OpenOffice.

By 6tricky9 on 28 Dec 2009

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