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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Microsoft Loses $290M in MS Office Patent Battle - MS Office Pulled from Microsoft Store, Downloads Halted Microsoft has failed in a Supreme Court bid to overturn a $290 million patent violation ruling. Not only is it the largest such award ever upheld, but this final ruling has significant consequences for patent law. The case involves XML documents, an advanced version of the HTML webpage code that allows data to be tagged to designate its content rather than just the way it appears on screen. The code makes it much easier to organize document content (for example, in a database). Microsoft built support for reading XML documents into the 2003 and 2007 editions of Word, but was accused of using a patented method by Canadian tech firm i4i. Microsoft not only lost the resulting court case, but was fined a total of $290 million, made up of damages, legal costs and a multi-million dollar penalty for inappropriate courtroom behavior by its legal team. A series of appeals followed, working all the way up to the Supreme Court. As is required of such cases, the arguments in the appeals changed from the facts of the case to the way the law is interpreted. In the Supreme Court hearing, the issue at stake was the way patents are granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The law says that once a patent is granted, the emphasis is on anyone found to have breached it to provide "clear and convincing" evidence that the USPTO was incorrect and the patent is invalid. That's similar to the level of proof required in a criminal case. Microsoft argued that the burden of proof should be on "the preponderance of evidence", which effectively means "more likely than not." That's the level of proof required in most civil cases. In particular, Microsoft noted this is the level of proof required to prove an alleged patent violation, creating what the company argues is an unfair balance. The Supreme Court has now ruled against Microsoft by an 8-0 margin, with the ninth judge not taking part in the case because he owns Microsoft stock. The judges said that the existing rules are legal and could only be changed by Congress. (Source: wsj.com) The case had gone far beyond Microsoft and i4i, with numerous large and small companies providing evidence. It was widely believed that had Microsoft prevailed, patents would have become less powerful and the system would have become more favorable to those with the money to fight a lengthy court case. (Source: npr.org) After a lengthy court battle that saw Microsoft cut down by tiny Canadian firm i4i, the software giant has agreed to remove the conflicting function from its popular Word program. As of this morning, the XML features at the heart of the great 2009 Word legal battle have been cut out. The ordeal began back in August, when a Texas federal judge found Microsoft guilty of infringing on small Toronto-based i4i's copyright of various XML functions found in the software company's Word, a prominent part of the very popular Office suite. Microsoft was given until October 10 to remove Word from store shelves or get the conflicting XML features out of the program, but this deadline was eventually delayed until January amidst appeals. Microsoft lost its final appeal just before Christmas, and at that point vowed it would comply with the original court order. Getting one's hands on a copy of Office on Microsoft's website yesterday afternoon was a very difficult thing to do. According to reports, only the $679 Office Ultimate edition was being listed as "in stock". All other versions of the suite were not available for purchase. (Source: eweek.com) Even Office 2003 Professional was pulled from Microsoft's MSDN and TechNet developer site. It's a surprising turn of events, given that at its last lost appeal Microsoft appeared ready to fully comply with the order. Impressions then were that adapting to it would not have a dramatic impact on the program's functionality or Microsoft's retail capacity. Microsoft Office should be available again soon. "We've taken steps to comply with the court's ruling and we're introducing the revised software into the U.S. market," Microsoft noted in a statement yesterday. "This process will be imperceptible to the vast majority of customers, who will find both trial and purchase options readily available." (Source: cnet.com) In fact, Microsoft promises that most basic users of Office, including owners of home businesses and students, shouldn't notice much of a blip at all. "In the U.S., the Home & Student suite is already available for online purchase and download, and the other suites are available [through] retail outlets," the company said. Despite promises that it would move on, reports state that Microsoft will continue its fight against i4i with another hearing in front of a three-judge panel soon. The company faces having to pay damages of $290 million to the Toronto firm.
Poster Comment: ======================================================== Here is 100% PROOF REPUBLICANS are BEHIND OUTSOURCING: REPUBLICANS ARE BEHIND THE OUTSOURCING OF AMERICAN JOBS 3 It's bad enough when companies take U.S. jobs and move them overseas to take advantage of lower labor costs. But does the U.S. tax code actually offer an incentive for firms to engage in such "offshoring?" The proposal, he said, "would close some really perverse loopholes in the tax code that, right now, reward American companies for moving American jobs overseas. The law, right now, permits companies that close down American factories and offices and move those jobs overseas to take a tax deduction for the costs associated with moving the jobs to China or India or wherever." On the same day Whitehouse made his statement, Scott A. Hodge, president of The Tax Foundation, a business-backed group that studies tax policy, released a statement saying the problem that served as the premise of the legislation isn't as big as people imagine. So the law Whitehouse decries is still the law. There is little debate that the current system allows companies to get a tax break for their expenses when they send jobs outside the U.S. We rate Whitehouse's statement True. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 3.
#1. To: HAPPY2BME-4UM (#0)
I am not a fan of Microsoft but this ruling is wrong. Software patents are mostly jokes. If they didn't steal copyrighted code then I could care less that they used the same or similar algorithm to implement it in a different way.
I have several contentions with Micro$oft. Bill Gates has for years circumvented immigration laws to hire cheap software engineers from India and Pakistan over American workers. This is documented in countless places. Also, they gouge their customers on their products. They won't be one of the wealthiest companies in the world for long during a depression inflating Windows and Office when other viable operating systems of office suites are available for NOTHING. I did get wireless working on Ubuntu PINGUY. Bill Gates has said on several occasions that the Linux is the greatest threat to the existence of Microsoft, and he is right. While UBUNTU doesn't have the bells and whistles with the mainstream application support (e.g., Photoshop) that Windows and MAC do, the worse the economy becomes, the more people will turn to it over Windows. Micro$oft has thousands of software engineers beating out code all over the world. Here is what ONE GUY is able to by himself ..
Really? I have MILLIONS! I do indeed hate MS because of their bug ridden software and their government allowed monopoly, and last but not least, their very underhanded business practices! But this ruling is still WRONG.
#4. To: RickyJ (#3)
================================================== It did get their attention though. I like that.
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