Microsoft loses Office patent appeal

Microsoft lost a patent appeal that forces Word (and by inclusion, Office) to be removed from sale by January 11th. The suit involves parts of Word that deal with XML export that i4i charged were infringing upon their patents.

Now, before you get too excited about Microsoft Office being removed for sale, remember that Microsoft has deep pockets. There’s a very high likelyhood that Microsoft will just write a check and be done with it. However, Microsoft has said it’s working quickly to ship versions of Word/Office that remove the infringing code.

The only versions affected are Word/Office 2007 for Windows. The Mac version is exempt.

Category: News