Microsoft threatens ‘massive disruptions’ over Word ban
In its appeal of the impending injunction against selling Word, Microsoft claims that the injunction will cause “massive disruptions” to distribution and “irreparable harm” to the company.
A U.S. District Court judge levied the injunction against Microsoft’s Word software after finding that it violates a patent held by i4i technologies. At issue is Word’s ability to act as an editor for XML documents which is covered by i4i’s patent.
The judge gave Microsoft 60 days to remove the feature or the company will have to stop selling Word as of Oct. 10. Although Microsoft is working on removing the offending feature from Word that the deadline puts an unfair burden on the company.
The injunction will not only prevent sales of Microsoft Word, but of the complete Office Suite of tools as well. Microsoft’s appeal says this will not only disrupt its sales, but those of its distribution partners as well.
Microsoft’s appeal cites disruptions to its OEM partners such as HP and Dell as well as retail channels like Best Buy. These companies would be forced to stop selling the software packages and installing them on new PCs.
The irreparable harm that Microsoft cites would likely come as these partners find alternatives to Microsoft Word in order to satisfy customer demand. If these companies were to turn to a free and open source software package such as OpenOffice, their sales would decrease substantially.
Once customers try other free solutions, there’s a chance that they will never return as Microsoft Office users. This would cause long-term implications as Microsoft’s core customer base could shrink substantially.
Is it an unfair burden for Microsoft to respect other companies’ intellectual property? Microsoft’s violation of i4i’s patent may well have caused irreparable harm to the company that had the original idea for this feature.
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August 19th, 2009
You think this company would’ve noticed a patent infringement before now really…
It’s almost 2010, the last version was office 07…
It’s understandable it would take some time, because MS Office isn’t that big of an application in terms of public presence, and so can easily slip by unnoticed when put up against the bigger players such as open office and Zoho, but still.
August 19th, 2009
“Once customers try other free solutions, there’s a chance that they will never return as Microsoft Office users. This would cause long-term implications as Microsoft’s core customer base could shrink substantially.”
Consumer maybe, but not business.
August 19th, 2009
@aquaadverse
I’ll bite. Why couldn’t businesses switch to OpenOffice? Google Apps might be a stretch in terms of functionality, but OO is pretty solid.
August 19th, 2009
@Dave,
It won’t happen because “Aquaadverse” (aka Ken) doesn’t want it to happen. It’s the same as with Vista: Ken claims that Vista wasn’t a disaster for Microsoft, therefore it wasn’t a disaster. (Ken clearly believes in the power of wishful thinking).
Speaking of Ken, why is he posting under a new moniker? Has he legally changed his name, or is this simply nymshifting? What is the significance of “Aquaadverse” anyway – is he allergic to water?
Anyway, it’s nice to see the patent trolls of Redmond getting hoist on their own petard – poetic justice of the highest order, which will hopefully have them executing even tighter turns in their death spiral.