Microsoft has been recently sued by i4i ( a Canadian developer of sgml software ) for patent infringement, specifically on a custom XML feature in Word. The damages so far amount to $290m which is a considerable amount. That though is not the big problem for Microsoft: the suit includes an injunction against Microsoft selling Word after the date of 10 October 2009.
I’m no fan of the US Patent system ( or any patents on softfware or computer functions for that matter ) however I feel a slight pinch of pain for Microsoft – this is certainly a big deal. One might call it just deserts in response to Microsoft’s patent waving flag against Linux in the last year. And that slight pinch of pain is lessened by the fact that Microsoft apparently knew about i4i’s patent as early as 2001 but still went ahead …
Of course Microsoft is now asking for time ( up to 5 months ) to create a workaround and at the same time keep on selling Word. However, both i4i and an independent patent lawyer have indicated that the offending code should be easily worked around with a patch.
Finally Microsoft indicated: “Even if the injunction will not affect Microsoft’s existing Office customers, consumers and businesses who require new copies of Office and Word would be stranded without an alternative set of software.” Huh? What about the 20 or so alternate office suites on the market including OpenOffice, MS Office’s most interesting rival.
UPDATE: here from Andy at the Standards Blog