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#26 2009-08-23 1:10 pm
Re: Judge Orders Permanent Stop of Microsoft Word Sales
Pariah wrote:
Metacell wrote:
I'm no fan of Microsoft but it sounds like a made up lawsuit to me. You can't patent the ability to do something...you can only patent the method you used. Otherwise, nobody would be able to do just about anything.
Unfrtunatly you can patent most anything anymore. After the infamous "one click" decision the gates really opened for patenting BS.
Under todays patent system it would have been possible to patent the round steering wheel, not a specific design, but the shape itself.
Please die human race.
Ho Eyo He Hum
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Get it
Stack it!#28 2009-08-23 4:13 pm
- Pariah
- James Carville Fan..
- From: Belly Of The Beast, Oklahoma!
- Registered: 2001-05-24
- Posts: 18426
Re: Judge Orders Permanent Stop of Microsoft Word Sales
Imagine is this situation had existed in the late seventies and some Patent troll decided to patent the basic elements of the hierarchical file structure represented in a GUI, files, folders etc.
"and it's not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Barack Obama
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#29 2009-08-23 4:38 pm
Re: Judge Orders Permanent Stop of Microsoft Word Sales
Pariah wrote:
Imagine is this situation had existed in the late seventies and some Patent troll decided to patent the basic elements of the hierarchical file structure represented in a GUI, files, folders etc.
Didn't Xerox do that? Oh, wait, don't tell anybody. 
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#30 2009-09-04 10:12 am
Re: Judge Orders Permanent Stop of Microsoft Word Sales
Still alive, at least for a while 
http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/178292.asp
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has granted Microsoft's motion to stay an injunction that would prohibit the software giant from selling Word.
Microsoft filed the motion Aug. 18 while preparing to appeal a Texas judge's ruling that the company willfully infringed a patent held by a small Canadian firm on a method for processing custom XML. Judge Leonard Davis ordered Microsoft to pay i4i Inc. $240 million and slapped an injunction on selling the ubiquitous Word software in its current form.
The injunction had an effective date of Oct. 10. The motion to stay blocks the injunction until the appeal process is complete.
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