January 11th ban hammer date for Microsoft Word: Off again. Kind of.

Not even 24 hours ago we heard the news that Microsoft lost their appeal to i4i — a small XML developers firm — and that the presiding judge decided to uphold the January 11th ban on Microsoft ’07. Yesterday the two most obvious choices for Microsoft were to pay up and forget about it or appeal again, risking losing more money and another court case. Microsoft however is choosing plan c. Plan C is simply selling new versions of Word ’03 and ’07 without the infringing and “little-used feature” according to Microsoft.

With respect to Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007, we have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products. Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction.

While Microsoft will escape the dreaded ban hammer on their bread and butter Office Suite, they will also still be responsible for a $240 million payment as awarded by the first judge and upheld by the second. That payment however is still up in the air as Microsoft has stated they are pursuing other legal options. We shall see…

Venture Beat

Microsoft Office ban coming January 11th…again.

Fighting a losing battle and getting stuck in a vicious black hole of denial seems to be the name of the game for Microsoft. A month or so back Microsoft found a fresh lawsuit on their doorstep compliments of i4i. The infringing code revolved around Microsoft’s use of protected algorithms dealing with the handling of .xml, .docx, and .docm files in Microsoft Office — more specifically Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007. Not surprisingly Microsoft appealed — and they lost, with the court ordered Office ban going into effect as originally planned on January 11th.

Microsoft does have a couple more options. A second appeal is all but certain. After a likely second (third if you count the original lawsuit) failure, Microsoft can always just shut up and pay up. I can understand wanting to protect your pride and fighting for your beliefs, but after losing twice in court, I’d seriously take a look at how much the lawyers are costing the company as well as what any settlement cost would be.

And companies wonder where their money goes…

Engadget > WSJ

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