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This new website, launched today by the California Dept. of Justice, coordinator for the participating states attorneys general listed on the left side of the homepage, allows consumers to post anonymous, online complaints concerning Microsoft’s “unlawful monopoly conduct.”
IE Patent Loss Aftershocks Reverberate. This article indicates that in the wake of the recent $521 milllion patent verdict against Microsoft, the company will make unspecified changes to its IE browser.
China blocks foreign software use in gov’t: “A new policy by China’s governing body the State Council will rule that all ministries have to buy only locally-produced software at the next upgrade cycle. The move, aimed at breaking the dominance of U.S.-based Microsoft on desktop computers, will eliminate Microsoft’s Windows operating system and Office productivity …
Microsoft loser in patent suit: $500 million verdict in Net case: “Microsoft was told by a jury to pay $521 million to the University of California and a Chicago-area company that claimed they invented technology used in the Internet Explorer browser.” See United States Patent 5,838,906 Microsoft Statement on Eolas Technologies Jury Verdict – Aug. …
“Microsoft’s Web site was made inaccessible for an hour and 40 minutes Friday afternoon when a denial-of-service attack overwhelmed the site with traffic, making it impossible for legitimate page requests to get through.” [Link]
From the LexisNexis press release: “LexisNexis will provide a legal research option on Microsofts new Research Task Pane featured in Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003, and Microsoft Office Access 2003.” (thanks Donna).
Microsoft has released into beta testing its speech server and said it will launch a partner program for solution providers building speech applications. Microsoft’s White Paper: Microsoft Speech Server, Enabling people to use speech as part of their everyday interactions with software and services whether they are using telephones, mobile devices, or PCs.
Microsoft appealed to the 4th Circuit to reverse a lower court decision forcing the company to include Java programming language in new releases of Windows XP. See my previous posts on this issue here, here and here.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued an order (in PDF) granting stay of the District Court Order in Microsoft’s ongoing battle against Sun Microsystems. This permits Microsoft to delay adding Java to updated versions of Windows XP. Microsoft’s press release on this news is available here.
Not surprisingly, on January 22, Microsoft filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal with the 4th Circuit, of the January 21 order by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz(Maryland) granting Sun Microsystems Inc.’s motion for preliminary injunction requiring Microsoft to add Java to its Windows OS within 120 days of the order.
On January 20, Microsoft and Sun delivered an agreement to Maryland U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz detailing how Microsoft would implement Java in its Windows OS, in accordance with the judge’s order to do so within 120 days. See this Reuter’s article for more details.
There are several reports today that Microsoft will release its source code to governments around the world in an attempt to stem the tide of their migration to open source operating systems such as the increasingly popular Linux. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Russia and NATO have already signed up for the Microsoft initiative.” …
