A recent injunction regarding a patent held by Toronto-based i4i is forcing Microsoft to withdraw a specific feature from Word licenses sold to the United States. As this story unfolds in the headlines, we thought it would be a good idea to clarify what it means – or more specifically, what it does not mean – for Xpertdoc’s clients and partners.
Let’s start with a little bit of background. Gray Knowlton wrote an excellent piece on which part of the Word software functionality is impacted by the litigation, and which part isn’t.
In a nutshell:
- Xpertdoc makes extremely clever and unique use of a powerful feature called Content Controls which is not impacted by the i4i litigation.
- Xpertdoc does not use the Custom XML Tags which are subject to the recent injunction.
Furthermore, we have been gearing up for months now for the upcoming Office 2010 release from Microsoft. Our Xpertdoc Designer software works completely and beautifully inside Word 2010, including in the latest beta release which does not contain the piece being disputed with i4i.
Finally, we are as always working very closely with Microsoft to ensure our clients and partners can safely benefit from all the productivity and business agility enhancements provided by the latest innovations from both of our firms.
Recent Comments