Microsoft recently lost a patent infringement case in the United States with the court’s ruling in favor of software development company tiny i4i. Many websites and blogs proclaimed after the court’s ruling that Microsoft would have to stop selling Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office in the beginning of January. Experts on the other hand knew that Microsoft was prepared to react quickly if they would lose the case in court.
Microsoft’s reaction is a Word patch that is being delivered to Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office users in the United States. The patch has been made available to Microsoft partners and original equipment manufacturers since October 2009 as a Microsoft Office Supplement Release. It is assumed that Microsoft will add the patch to Windows Update and Microsoft Update so that users in the United States will be supplied with the patch as well.
But what exactly is removed from Microsoft Word? Once the patch is delivered Word will not be able to handle custom XML elements in supported files, a feature that is not used by the majority of Word users as its usually used with server based processing of Word documents. In short: The patch will not affect the majority of end users at all. And if they are using custom xml they can still prevent the patch from being downloaded and installed on their computer system so that the functionality remains.
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