Microsoft Word banned by courts

[darkrose0510]

MS have been banned from selling MS Word in Texas due to a patent violation.

Oh sweet irony.

Microsoft Word banned by the courts | News | TechRadar UK

[megerdin]

Cool !
The best news for me today

[oz]

Loosing court cases is not one of their favorite things to have in their history, so I've read that they are considering yet another appeal.

It will be interesting.

[Djarum]

Loosing court cases is not one of their favorite things to have in their history, so I've read that they are considering yet another appeal.

It will be interesting.

My understanding is there are going to be able to continue to sell Microsoft Word and Office because there is going to be an update implemented in that will replace the offending portion of the code with one that does not infringe on the patent. However Microsoft was until the Jan 11th deadline to ensure that all new copies that hit store shelves have no offending code in them by default.

Keep an eye out for heavy price cuts as they may find it easier to take sell off the remaining copies dirt cheep to move them off the shelves as fast as possible.

[techieMoe]

I see a lot of Microsoft employees being asked to work overtime on the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

[reed9]

Honestly, this news makes me sad. Not because I care at all for Microsoft, but because I strongly oppose software patents. Any body of legal precedence upholding software patents is bad news for open source and free software.

The faint glimmer of hope I have is that Microsoft decides software patents are no bueno from this, and uses their political power to put an end to them. But that seems an unlikely scenario.

[techieMoe]

Honestly, this news makes me sad. Not because I care at all for Microsoft, but because I strongly oppose software patents. Any body of legal precedence upholding software patents is bad news for open source and free software.

The faint glimmer of hope I have is that Microsoft decides software patents are no bueno from this, and uses their political power to put an end to them. But that seems an unlikely scenario.

Sadly, courts in Texas seem to be more patent-friendly than other parts of the country, which is why so many patent trolls set up shop here. I hope that one day someone higher up will overturn these ridiculous patents on intangible concepts. I hope for a lot of things.

[Lazydog]

While I will agree with the patents are bad, I am really happy to see them used against M$. They have been doing this for so long it is time this caught up with them. I am willing to bet if you could look at the source code M$ would be out of business with a few days because of all the patents they have broken.

[cousinlucky]

Please pardon my ignorance, here, but what happens if someone ( let's call him Skippy ) develops some Linux software in his basement and calls it Skippy's computer operating system.

Let's say the the engineers and lawyers at Microsoft discover that Skippy's product here and there looks a little similar to one of Microsofts os and they take Skippy to court. If Skippy did not have any access to Microsoft's code and developed his system entirely on his own can the courts force him to throw it away??

[MikeTbob]

MS would at least have to let "skippy's" lawyers view what they and the courts deem neccesary, even if that means source code for MS products, but they would probably have to sign an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) to keep MS source code "safe" it can be done. The thing here is, "Skippy" is only a little guy and just the threat of MS or someone like that would be enough reason to cave in to their demands without ever bothering the courts.
This is all just my opinion of course, take it as you see it.