Apparently Microsoft did not learn its lesson hiring Jerry Seinfeld to help launch Vista in the fall of 2008, now apparently Tiger Woods will be Microsoft’s spokesman for Windows 7! Is it possible that Steve Ballmer actually said???: “This guy is big – really big from what I hear, and he’s known as a great multi-tasker who can juggle different extra-curricular activities – just like Windows 7!” Now that Tiger Woods is playing in the Masters in Augusta we will see a media frenzy like nothing else.
Microsoft Loses Its Appeal
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Microsoft’s appeal for an en banc hearing that Microsoft willfully infringed i4i’s patent and owes more than $240 million in damages. Last January Microsoft removed the offending XML technology from Word 2007 and Office 2010 will not include the infringing technology. Next for Microsoft is the US Supreme Court, who may take the case. However, since less than 4% of cases presented to the US Supreme Court by Petition for Writ of Certiorari are accepted. So it’s unlikely that the US Supreme Court will consider Microsoft’s appeal.
10 years after Microsoft vs. DOJ
It’s hard to believe that in April 2000 “U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft violated federal and state antitrust laws and ordered the company to decouple its operating system and browser technology, pay hefty fines and undergo years of scrutiny to prevent future market monopolizing.” Apparently Microsoft if doing well since Microsoft reported “in January record revenues of nearly $20 billion for its second fiscal quarter.” One of the major problems 10 years ago was the monopoly of Internet Explorer, and even though Netscape is no longer in the market apparently the browser wars now continue in the US and EU with Google Chrome and Firefox.