There’s been a lot of crazy suits against Microsoft in the past, but there a chance that this one might take the prize for being possibly the most important, if it goes through. Microsoft has been sued by a Toronto company by the name of i4i who owns a number of patents regarding XML coding that Microsoft may be infringing on. The infringing parts of Word? Oh, just opening .DOCX, .XML or DOCM files.
Microsoft was handed an injunction by a Texas judge stating that it would have to stop selling Word domestically within 60 days. Not only that, but it would also have to stop instructing people on have to open the offending files. The suit doesn’t seem to apply to any other aspect of Microsoft Office which seems a bit odd, but perhaps the patent just doesn’t cover spreadsheets and presentation software.
The strange part about this? The opposing company, i4i, actually sells XML products for Word. So potentially a large portion of i4i’s business model relies on the very thing it looks to be halting. Seems an odd business strategy, though potentially one that could mean a large payday for i4i. Suits like these tend to not get to the point where the company can’t sell the product anymore. What will most likely happen is Microsoft will settle with i4i for a decent amount of money, rather than allow i4i to block one of it’s top selling applications banned from selling in the US.
Read [Mashable]
Actually, what's more likely to happen is Microsoft will find technologies used by i4i that appear to violate many Microsoft-registered patents, but will agree not to take them to court if they back down on their own patent suit. This type of thing happens all the time. The US Patent System is broken. Period.
I can clearly see in this picture, the cut electrical line was hidden under the home owner’s home and not repaired up to code.