Microsoft faces a trial over patent infringement charges related to its ergonomic keyboards after a federal appeals court on Tuesday reversed a lower court's decision that invalidated the patents.
TypeRight Keyboard Corp. sued Microsoft in July 1998, claiming that Microsoft's ergonomic keyboards violated its patents. The Microsoft Natural keyboards feature V-shaped designs with keys in separate clusters for the left and right hands and have a large wrist rest.
Microsoft in June 2000 won a motion to invalidate the patents. The company argued that the concept of ergonomic keyboards predated TypeRight's patents. Evidence that was presented consisted of an undated document from a German company, Marquardt GmbH, and testimony from paid fact witnesses.
The judge presiding over Microsoft's appeal of the European Union's antitrust decision has scheduled a first meeting for July 27, the court announced Tuesday. Bo Vesterdorf, presiding judge at the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, called the "informal'' meeting "to sort out practicalities,'' such as setting the hearing schedule, a court spokesman said. EU regulators, Microsoft attorneys and other "interested parties'' have been invited to attend, but the session will be closed to the public.
As Microsoft enters more competitive markets and faces increased grumbling over its litany of security flaws, the company is trying what " for it " is an unusual tack: paying more attention its customers.
Yes, it sounds obvious. But even some at Microsoft concede that when you're the world's largest software company it's easy to lose focus. That is, until your customers start to balk " and look to other options, such as cheaper Linux-based technology.
Tests conducted by Microsoft and others show that the mere presence of the Google logo can boost a user's rating of the search engine's relevance by as much as 10 percent when compared with situations in which the logo isn't visible -- even if the actual results are the same, said Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi, an MSN corporate vice president.
"That's how strong a brand they've got," Mehdi said.
That brand, in turn, is one of the biggest obstacles Microsoft will need to overcome as it try to make inroads in the Internet search business.
It might seem sometimes like Microsoft has more money than God, but in at least one situation, some of His earthly representatives were able to outbid two of its top executives.
In 1998, when the historic Alderbrook resort on Hood Canal was put up for sale, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes, who both own nearby homes, teamed to submit an offer together.
Paul Thurrott got a word from Microsoft official on the timing of XP SP2 release date...
A Microsoft representative contacted me yesterday to confirm that the final release of XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), the long-awaited XP security upgrade, will likely ship in late July or early August. Furthermore, Tablet PC users who are interested in getting the next version of XP Tablet PC Edition should download the current XP SP2 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) build because the release includes the final shipping version of XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. XP SP2 also includes several other product updates, such as XP Media Center Edition (XP MCE) 2004 (for existing XP MCE users only), Windows Update 5, Windows Media Player (WMP) Series, and DirectX 9.0c. To learn more about XP SP2, see my review on the SuperSite for Windows.
Microsoft has paid the $600 million fine handed down by the European Commission in its antitrust ruling against the company. Representatives of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant confirmed Friday that Microsoft deposited the payment in an escrow account while the company's appeal is taking place. While Microsoft had the option of submitting a promissory note in place of such a payout until proceedings are complete, the company dipped into its massive cash reserves, estimated at $50 billion, to cover the largest antitrust fine ever levied against a company by the European Union.
In another sign that competition is heating up in the software industry, Microsoft Corp. has slashed prices by more than half for Paris City Hall as the French capital considers switching to low-cost open-source programs. The software giant agreed to cut prices to suppliers who work with the city "to the order of" 60 percent, said a Paris official, who spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday. Paris plans to spend $195 million on computers and software over the next three years in a push to upgrade obsolete systems.
Microsoft junkies have been waiting and waiting for Windows XP Service Pack 2, but it seems the end is finally in sight. "I can guarantee it will ship within the next two months," Tony Goodhew, product manager at Microsoft, said at the company's TechEd 2004 conference here this week.
Microsoft's most recent timetables had set the release for June, and then July, but last month the company pushed that back to "this summer." Two weeks ago, it released a nearly final test version.
John Connors' willingness to take a risk with Microsoft's $56.4 billion in cash is paying off.
The company's chief financial officer has generated a 7.3 percent average annual return on investments in the past three years. The gain is almost triple that produced by companies with more than $1 billion in sales, according to Chicago-based consulting firm Treasury Strategies. Microsoft, with more cash than any U.S. non-finance company, has performed "pretty darned well" by investing more in stocks and bonds with lower credit ratings, Connors said