It won’t come as news to many of you that I’m no fan of Microsoft — their long history of sub-standard software combined with economic domination and anticompetitive behaviour just doesn’t do it for me — but even I can’t bring myself to see this patent ruling as a good thing. Funny perhaps, and certainly karmicly appealing, but ultimately it does no-one but i4i any good whatsoever.
Software patents do nothing but limit companies’ ability to innovate and develop quality software, and this an ideal example of that. Microsoft Word is one of the few genuinely good products MS has ever produced, and their move to an XML file format in office 2007 was both a huge improvement in file size and processing speed, and an important step towards open-formats and interoperability from a company that had historically seen those things as an anathema. Obviously, it’s not perfect, and there were already open XML formats they could have adopted rather than rolling their own, but it’s a step in the right direction and it benefits every user of MS Word. We should not be discouraging Microsoft from making these kinds of change, yet that’s exactly what the recent East-Texas court ruling banning the sale of Word due to patent infringement does — and in the strongest possible way.
But it’s worse than that; not only does this discourage further good behaviour on the part of MS, but it directly impacts thousands of companies all over the world; Word is critical to the functioning of a huge number of businesses, and not being able to buy new licenses, even for a short while, could be a serious problem for some of them. If they’re left with less licenses than they have employees, then some of those employees might not be able to work, or have to do so on illegal software. In this financial climate, no company wants to have to make that choice. It’s true that there are alternatives (even free ones,) but anyone who thinks that’s a solution has never had much contact with corporate IT departments.
The whole situation seems like utter nonsense to me. Microsoft followed a totally obvious course of action, which benefited pretty much everyone, when it switched its file formats to XML, and yet because some other company had the idea first, they’re fined $277,000,000.00 in “damages†— someone will have to explain to me how Microsoft improving their office suite cost i4i $240 million — and the rest of us are prevented from buying the software we want to use.
In case anyone needed further proof that software patents (and patents in general) do more to harm to innovation and competition than they do to protect inventors, I think this is a prime example.
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i4i: We aren't out to take Microsoft down
Source: Neowin
I4i Chairman Loudon Owen, the winner of a major injunction against Microsoft has said that his goal is not to get Microsoft Word pulled from shelves. Owen said to ZDnet on Wednesday that "he is one of the hundreds of millions of people who uses Word and the other Microsoft Office tools every day.". This should be the case seeing as the software that i4i actually offers is only an add on to Microsoft Word.
"We're not seeking to stop Microsoft's business and we're not seeking to interfere with all the users of Word out there," Owen said to ZDnet this Wednesday. He also added that the injunction only prevents Microsoft from selling copies of Microsoft Word that include i4i's custom XML technology. The problem with this is, that currently, every version of Microsoft Word (2003/2007/2010) include this technology.
Owen said that he would like to see a version of Word come out without the technology in question. "The injunction is not saying there is no more Word for the world," Owen said. "That is not our intention and that would not be a sensible remedy."
The ruling issues an injunction against Microsoft that would bar Word in its current form. The ruling would go into effect in 60 days, unless Microsoft wins a stay as part of an appeal, which is currently in the works.
But Owen said i4i's focus is on its products, not on the courts. Owen said i4i's mission is trying to make all information database-ready. The company, which has about 30 employees and has been running since 1993, has products in use by a number of large companies, including many large pharmaceutical names such as Amgen, Bayer and Biogen.
He also added when asked if there was room for partnership between the companies, that the company's goal is to help structure the world's information and it will do whatever it takes to reach that goal. "We are always ready willing and able to partner with any good partner, whoever that is."
I4i Chairman Loudon Owen
Image: McLean Watson
"and we're not seeking to interfere with all the users of Word out there" ... but in order to get huge piles of money out of Microsoft we're going to have to put a gun to their head, maybe fire a few warning shots to show we're serious. And if we accidentally hit some passers-by, well that's a price we're prepared to pay. We are talking about HUGE piles of money, after all.
Is it just me or does that guy look incredibly smug ... I guess I would too if I'd just weaselled 270 million out of microsoft
From the register.