Wednesday, December 23, 2009

More software patent extortion

"Microsoft lost a patent case involving a company called I4i in May, after a jury ruled that Microsoft infringed one of i4i's patents with a custom XML feature found in Word. In August an injunction was placed on sales of Word pending the appeal, which did not go in Microsoft's favor Tuesday."
- from CNET

Sad news. Patent 5,787,449 has been upheld.

On the one hand, Microsoft deserves what it gets for supporting software patents. On the other, the patent system is just terrible. Not only does this patent cover boring and well-known techniques, it was actually upheld in court.

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