Microsoft Loses Again, But It's Almost Irrelevant

Microsoft just lost it's appeal against the patent infringement verdict handed to Toronto-based i4i. It's all about the Custom XML function integrated in Microsoft Word, in both the standalone Word 2007 and the bundled version in Office 2007. Copies of Word 2007 and Office 2007 with the feature removed will be available for U.S. sale by Jan. 11, and "beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, don’t contain the technology covered by the injunction," said Microsoft's Kevin Kutz, after the judgement. i4i developed a custom XML editor and patented parts of its software product. The courts have ruled that Microsoft knowingly infringed on the i4i patent when it included a similar custom XML editor in Word 2007. The whole idea here is that a great, big, multinational corporation such as Microsoft can't willfully eradicate a market being developed by small companies. Competition is one of the things that helped make Microsoft what it is today: highly successful. Now that it's a vast multinational, proceeding ethically (and legally) through the competitive business world is much harder work. Microsoft must be more careful. I'm still using Office 2007 though, and if you're using it too, there's no need to switch. In fact, the alternatives are basically inadequate anyway. So what's the effect of the ruling against Microsoft? Aside from the fact that it now owes i4i about $290 million, not much else. Big enterprise users of Office 2007 and (late next year) Office 2010, can use i4i's excellent custom XML editor (just like they were doing before), or one of any of the dozen or more custom XML editors on the market. Existing boxed versions of Word 2007 and Office 2007 are unaffected by the patent ruling. OEM versions of Office 2007 have already been patched. In the meantime, at this time of year Office 2007 and Word 2007 are selling at comparatively bargain basement prices at Amazon. Get Word 2007 here. Get Office 2007 here.

Veoh Safe Harbor Ruling Could Impact YouTube Suit.

Viacom's $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube could be impacted by a judgement which was handed down in favour of video host Veoh. A federal judge ruled yesterday on the matter in a case where Io, an adult film company. In the ruling the judge said that Veoh does indeed qualify for a Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbor. The judge felt that Veoh addressed DMCA complaints quickly, and had banned more than 1,000 repeat infringers, and thus qualified for safe harbor protection. This same ruling could have an impact on Viacoms lawsuit as many of the same conditions are met by YouTube.

iPhone 3G Lawsuit

Alabama resident Jessica Alena Smith filed a lawsuit against Apple over the "Defective iPhone 3G." She hopes the suit will become a class-action complaint. She is stating that the suit is based upon the iPhone's 3G sub-standard performance and reliability. The Lawsuit details that Smith noticed that the iPhone's data connection, e-mail, SMS, and other communications were slower than expected, and that the device only appeared to connect to AT&T's 3G network less than 25 percent of the time. She also experienced an "inordinate amount of dropped calls," according to the lawsuit. It will be interesting to see this unfold. Thanks to Ars Technica for the lead.

Microsoft Sued Over Vista Capable Marketing...

A Seattle based law firm is spearheading a lawsuit which claims Microsoft of allowing PC manufacturers to label computers as "Vista capable" when they're barely able to run even the most basic version of Vista. Shame on you Microsoft and fellow Rogues...