Dell and HP back Microsoft against ruling to ban Word in the U.S.

Microsoft is continuing to fight the courts on a ruling banning Word in the U.S. in its current form. The legal battle started nearly two years ago and now has come to a head with the Texas court verdict that placed an injunction upon Microsoft Word. It seems Microsoft has been able to talk Dell and HP into supporting the company.

A court in Texas ruled in favor of a small Toronto based company, i4i and have placed an injunction that prevents Microsoft from selling its flagship software, Word. Microsoft was also heavily fined to the tune of nearly $300 million. Ever since the ruling by the court in Texas, Microsoft has been fighting to appeal the verdict in nearly every possible way.

The company put out a list of reasons as to why Word should stay on the market. One of the reasons implied that the public would face hardship without the software available for purchase. Dell and Hewlett-Packard, two of the world’s largest computer manufacturers indicated that the injunction that orders Microsoft from selling Word would detrimentally affect the PC ecosystem.

Apparently, the sudden change ordered by the courts may cause tweaks to be implemented without fully being tested by Microsoft, which could result in consumers losing data. According to Computer Word, Dell and HP filed identical cookie cutter reports earlier this week with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in which both companies requested that the verdict be overturned.

Both companies also asked that the courts extend the deadline by four months at the minimum. Apparently, Dell will be greatly affected with the company’s practice of incorporating a version of Word into the backup copy of the disk image used to setup each hard drive. Dell and HP also indicated that the injunction would affect the public adversely and that the ban should be lifted to allow Microsoft to sell Word. It will be interesting to see if Dell and HP’s pleas will fall on deaf ears by the Court of Appeals or if it will make some impact on the appeal.

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• Court to Microsoft: Word Up
• Microsoft says public will face hardship without Word on the market in appeal
• Microsoft threatens ‘massive disruptions’ over Word ban
• Judge orders Microsoft to stop selling Word or lobotomize it
• Microsoft loses $290 million dollar appeal over patent infringement