So What About Those XML Patents, Anyway?

"Huh? Then why, you may fairly ask, are we reading so many breathless articles (3,227, by the Google News count as of this moment in time), speculating on the consequences and opportunities that will follow when the sixty days runs out under the Texas judgment, and Office disappears from the shelves of the U.S. retail world? Isn't Office Suite Life As We Know It about to end?

"Well, no. Sorry. The key of course, is that patents in general, and the i4i patent as well, are all about money. Whether or not Microsoft's emergency appeal to lift the Judge's order barring it from selling Office with Word as currently configured (i.e., with the specific offending XML capability included upon which the i4i suit focuses) is successful, I'll wager you that no one will have any more trouble buying Office the day after the 60 day pendancy period runs out than they did before. That's because the key to the solution is also all about money, calculated under three alternate paths. The outcome will almost certainly be reached as a result of the parties following one of these routes, or some combination of them:"

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• Oh My Word – How Patently Stupid(Aug 14, 2009)
• Microsoft banned from selling Word(Aug 12, 2009)