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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