Submitted by Microsoft has begun e-mailing its corporate customers worldwide, letting them know that they may need to start using a different version of Office as a result of a recent legal setback. The software maker said Monday that it has been forced to issue new versions of Office 2003 and Office XP, which change the way Microsoft’s Access database interacts with its Excel spreadsheet. “It was recently decided in a court of law that certain portions of code found in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, Microsoft Office Access 2003, Microsoft Office XP Professional and Microsoft Access 2002 infringe a third-party patent,” Microsoft said in an e-mail to customers. “As a result, Microsoft must make available a revised version of these products with the allegedly infringing code replaced.”
For a total of 48 lawsuits “The Redmond giant has been ordered to pay nearly $9 billion, a figure which is set to rise with some lawsuits still to be ruled on.
This covers everthing from the miniscule $2 million paid to the state of Iowa, as a fine following the 1999 lawsuit against MS for overcharging customers, to the huge $2 billion one paid to the Enemy, Sun Microsystems.”
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24621
So, they have begun the notifications. The question to ask here is why didn’t they start the notifications months ago? This case was decided back in 2005, May-June time frame. That is 6-7 months ago, so the least they could have done is notified customers back then that a change would be forthcoming.
The question to ask here is why didn’t they start the notifications months ago?
They only cover customers that install the Service Pack or the patched XP version immediately.
But maybe they have just been working on the patched XP version and service packs to make sure that they work as intended. In spite my bias and their track record I still believe that they may have been working to ensure that there were no gotchas. This wouldn’t be a good time for there to be any public loss of confidence in their cash cow.
Looks like SCO went after the wrong people…they should have gone after Microsoft with their fear tactics and they would have won millions.
Looks like SCO went after the wrong people…they should have gone after Microsoft with their fear tactics and they would have won millions.
Ah, but then where would the ~$10 million in licensing money that kept SCO afloat through their lawsuits have come from? If it weren’t for Microsoft, SCO would have been bankrupt long ago.
I think most businesses won’t care about the infringment and keep using the current version. Who will sue them for not using the “clean” version? And why go through all the trouble of setting up new administrative installs, prepackaged installs and installations on home pc’s from the employees?
I know for sure my boss will say that it won’t matter and it will be replaced anyway when the standard has gone from Office XP to 2003 or 12.
Actually I’m more than a little surprised at this.
I would have thought the best thing for their customers, and the cheapest way forward for Microsoft would have been to simply license the patent, and then all code that has been sold is then ok.
We all have our axes to grind against Microsoft and “Customer Experience”, but this one seems more than a little strange; unless of course they are planning to use the outcry as ammunition for something else.
Tp.
I would have thought the best thing for their customers, and the cheapest way forward for Microsoft would have been to simply license the patent, and then all code that has been sold is then ok.
I am sure they tried it. But one nasty problem with patents is that they can ask any amount of money. The price can be fair or not. They can ask whatever they want AND they have the monopoly granted by the patent.
?unfair? yes… but it is US law.
die by the software patent.
I am not a fan of software patents (vis à vis the Y2K “windowing” debacle), but I’m somehow pleasently pleased at this result.
(But what do I do about my personal edition of O2K3Pro?)
Please show me where Microsoft has sued for patent infringement that was a bad lawsuit.
“It was recently decided in a court of law that certain portions of code found in Microsoft Office … infringe a third-party patent,”
Sort of like a majority of Haitian hog farmers deciding that the space shuttle is using the wrong reentry angle.
Even scarier:
The fact that MS hasn’t already ordered the current Congress and administration to rewrite patent law (and they realistically could) suggests that they plan to profit from it even more in the future than it’s costing them now.
If things continue to take this path, I wonder how software will look like in ten years from now?
A totally obscure junkwork, that constantly applies ugly workarounds to overcome the ever growing pool of trivial patents?
Oh wait, … it can’t get any worse right?