Microsoft Loses Patent Dispute Involving Office: Users Required to Apply Patch

[mandy]

Microsoft has lost a patent dispute involving Microsoft Office.  As a result of the decision users are required to apply a patch to keep their software "legal".

Microsoft has begun e-mailing its corporate customers worldwide, letting them know that they may need to start using a different version of Office as a result of a recent legal setback.

The software maker said Monday that it has been forced to issue new versions of Office 2003 and Office XP, which change the way Microsoft's Access database interacts with its Excel spreadsheet.

The move follows a verdict last year by a jury in Orange County, Calif., which found in favor of a patent claim by Guatemalan inventor Carlos Armando Amado. Microsoft was ordered to pay $8.9 million in damages for infringing Amado's 1994 patent. That award covered sales of Office between March 1997 and July 2003.

full article: http://news.com.com/Patent+spat+forces+b...t.txt.caro