Microsoft Wins Office Patent Case
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A jury finds that a Smart Tags feature in Microsoft Office does not infringe on a little-known company's patent.
Microsoft Corp. has won a favorable jury verdict in a 2-year-old patent-infringement case regarding technology used in its Office productivity suite. After a two-week trial, a jury in U.S. District Court in Providence, R.I., ruled Wednesday that Microsofts Smart Tags technology does not infringe on a patent held by Norwegian inventor Alte Hedloy of Arendi Holding Ltd., a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed. The case centered on one of the three Smart Tags built into Microsoft Office XP and 2003. The feature in question works in Microsoft Word and associates a typed name with a contact in Microsoft Outlook. When users type a name, they can click an option to automatically enter the person into their Outlook contacts or, if the contact already exists, look up contact information or send an e-mail.
Read more here about Smart Tags.
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As an online reporter for eWEEK.com, Matt Hicks covers the fast-changing developments in Internet technologies. His coverage includes the growing field of Web conferencing software and services. With eight years as a business and technology journalist, Matt has gained insight into the market strategies of IT vendors as well as the needs of enterprise IT managers. He joined Ziff Davis in 1999 as a staff writer for the former Strategies section of eWEEK, where he wrote in-depth features about corporate strategies for e-business and enterprise software. In 2002, he moved to the News department at the magazine as a senior writer specializing in coverage of database software and enterprise networking. Later that year Matt started a yearlong fellowship in Washington, DC, after being awarded an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship for Journalist. As a fellow, he spent nine months working on policy issues, including technology policy, in for a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He rejoined Ziff Davis in August 2003 as a reporter dedicated to online coverage for eWEEK.com. Along with Web conferencing, he follows search engines, Web browsers, speech technology and the Internet domain-naming system.
