Microsoft Can't sell Word anymore

[arkusM]

I couldn't see an application the complainant had developed. Rightly or wrongly I interpreted it as a method of using Word to achieve a task.....is that not the case?

You are right, it is ironic that they are blocking a product that is necessary for the distribution of their own product... But I guess it is the principle of the matter.
It is a mad, mad world.

 

[schielrn]

Well it finally looks like a verdict has came and all new versions of "Word" will be ceased as of Jan. 11, 2010. Looks like Microsoft is going to ahve to devise a workaroudn for it:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091222/ap_on_bi_ge/us_microsoft_patent

 

[sous2817]

It's interesting how two different articles on the same story have two different results:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122203107.html?hpid=sec-tech

From schielrn's article: "Microsoft has said that it and the public will both suffer if Word goes off the market while the company devises a workaround."

From my article: "Either way, though, Microsoft is already moving to get out of the box the court's ruling put it in. In a statement issued earlier Tuesday, the company said it "had put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature" from Word before the Jan. 11 deadline."

Meh, either way I find it hard to believe that Microsoft (or the public for that matter) will "suffer" because of this...

 

[Oorang]

Word won't go off the market. They will pay a royalty or rush a fix into 2010 and release it. As long as this litigation has been going on, they almost certainly have a contingency plan. Letting everyone freak out as they ponder the ramification of the ruling is just a strategy to bring pressure to bear on the decision makers. If they can't influence a favorable decision then they will go to plan B. Right now letting everyone sweat works to their advantage because people won't be mad at MS for (allegedly) infringing on a patent. They will be mad at that company that created a problem without having a solution.