Microsoft Word, that word processor program that you use to do ALL your writing work on has been banned from being sold in the US. Like for real.
Within 60 days, and if you live in the US, you won’t be able to buy the fabled program from Microsoft any longer. This all came about as a result of a patent dispute between Microsoft and the Canadian company i4i, regarding the way that Word processes XML files.
I’m not sure that I have realised the extent of this yet, because i do ALL my work on Microsoft Word, purely because i find it easier to integrate with most Windows PC’s that way even though i have a Mac.
Of course i’m in the UK so Microsoft can still sell Word here, but if Microsoft are banned from selling it in the US where it’s biggest market is, what sort of effect will that have on the UK and indeed the rest of the world?
In the end though, as with all problems involving huge company’s like Microsoft, the dispute will probably be solved with a huge payout to i4i. In fact back in May, a similar dispute between the two company’s resulted in a $200 million payout to i4i, so there is no doubt this will get the same treatment but what will this check be….wow!