microsoft

In the aftermath of i4i's patent infringement victory over Microsoft in a Texas courtroom, two more small companies are making their way to the Lone Star State in hopes that David will slay Goliath once more. About a week ago, Toronto-based i4i made ... headlines around the world after a shock courtroom victory that saw Microsoft ordered to pay them $240 million in patent infringement damages. Microsoft was also asked to stop selling their popular Word software within 60 days of the ruling. Companies Seek Unspecified Damages Now, Allvoice Developments (a U.S. provider of speech recognition ... (view more)

Prominent PC makers say Microsoft's warning that the recent MS Word injunction could cause the company and the industry "irreparable damage" is no hype after all. The claim comes as i4i makes it clear it won't be backing down in the fight to protect ... its patent. As reported yesterday , Microsoft is asking a court to overturn an order that it stop selling Word in its current form from October 12; it wants the order put on hold until the appeals process is complete. The firm says that the order would cause it "irreparable harm". That's not an understatement. The term "irreparable ... (view more)

It seems the troublesome Microsoft Word injunction is finally unearthing some real emotion from the Redmond-based software giant. In a recent court filing, Microsoft, sounding a bit desperate, warned that if the injunction continued to move forward ... it could inflict "irreparable harm" on the company. Some of you will recall that late last week a Texas federal judge ordered Microsoft to halt the resale of its very popular Microsoft Word because several of its functions -- those involving XML (.XML, .DOCX, or DOCM) -- infringe on Toronto-based i4i's patent . Issue More Serious Than Expected ... (view more)

A Bing webmaster representative has come forward admitting that Microsoft is guilty of utilizing a MSNbot to click onto adCenter ads. A MSNbot is basically a web-crawling robot issued by Microsoft to supplement the Bing search engine. This is how ... documents and web pages are collected to sustain a searchable index. Google and Yahoo both have their own versions of web-crawling bots, named Googlebot and Slurp respectively. One of the areas of concern for Microsoft's Bing has always been advertising. Because the "decision engine" is still a relatively new search medium, Microsoft is under ... (view more)

After experimenting with the "Cashback" concept for its new search engine Bing, not only does Microsoft intend on continuing with the program, the company will now offer double the cashback rewards. When Microsoft first released Bing, discount ... shoppers rejoiced at the thought of reclaiming a portion of their online retailing expenses thanks to the "Cashback" promotion launched in conjunction with the new "decision engine". The Cashback idea offers loyal users financial incentives for making purchases with advertising retailers found through Bing. Yes, Microsoft will actually refund ... (view more)

Just a day after it was reported that Microsoft's Word could be pulled from store shelves due to a copyright snafu, there's now word that such measures could be prevented -- and that the initial decision may not be as catastrophic as we were led to ... believe. According to reports, Microsoft will almost surely be able to find an "easy technical work-around" to the injunction by a Texas federal judge earlier this week ordering the Redmond-based company to stop selling its popular Word software due to a copyright mix-up with Canadian firm i4i. Headlines "not really true" New York judge ... (view more)

Microsoft has some bad news for those who signed up for the Office Live Small Business service before February 2008. These people will now have to pay an additional fee to renew all web domains acquired through the service. This is not the first ... time that Microsoft has requested payment for domain renewals. In February 2008 the company started charging new customers $14.95 USD for each new web domain. Up until now, those who signed up for the Office Live Small Business service before February 2008 were exempt from paying any additional fee. In the Interest of Fairness... Now, all Office Live ... (view more)

Microsoft might just be readying a (very) early Christmas gift from 'ol Saint Nic. Rumors are that the Redmond-based company will soon announce a major price cut to its Xbox 360 Elite console, to a rather reasonable $299. The rumor is due to a ... catalog page posted on game blog Kotaku showing the 120 GB version of the console for just under $300. The ad belongs to Meijer, a popular Midwest grocery chain in the same market as Wal-Mart. According to reports, the Meijer catalog should ship around August 30, meaning that the Elite could be available for the low price shortly after the beginning of ... (view more)

Microsoft has been ordered to pay over $290 million for willfully infringing on a patent by Canadian firm I4i. The Redmond-based firm has also been told by a Texas judge to stop selling its Word program. The patent in question relates to the use of ... the XML programming language that makes files readable across different programs and allows the formatting of text. XML is an integral part of Microsoft's Word. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) XML Patent Filed by I4i in 1998 The $290 million fine and sales ban of Word are the result of Microsoft's use of Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) documents. Other word ... (view more)

Microsoft has been accused of failing to do enough to prevent rogue pharmaceutical ads on the results page of its new search engine, Bing. But the claim comes in a report from a group with a clear commercial interest and uses language which gives a ... misleading impression. The authors of the report searched Bing for ten pharmaceutical products, covering a mix of drugs for sexually-related conditions and drugs with the potential to be abused. They then looked at the "sponsored search results" which appear on the right-hand side of the screen. According to the authors, 89.7% of the drug providers ... (view more)