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<b>Technology News:</b> Microsoft removes Access-Excel link to comply with patent case. By John Stokdyk

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9th Feb 2006
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Last week, Microsoft started notifying corporate customers using Office Professional 2003 alongside Access 2003 that they should install a new service pack 2 to comply with the decision in the patent case brought Guatemalan inventor Armando Amado.

In June 2005, a federal jury awarded $8.96m in damages against Microsoft for breaking Amado's patent on an application that link Excel spreadsheets to Microsoft's Access database. The decision and damages affected Access and Excel software shipped up until July 2003. Further details of the service pack are available from Microsoft's support website.

Microsoft indicated that most corporate customers with volume licensing deals will already have the Office 2003 Service Pack 2 which includes the relevant patches to remove the disputed Excel-Access link.

In its analysis of the case, Gartner suggested that relatively few companies were likely to be in the middle of Office deployments that included Access 2002 or 2003. Gartner professed some confusion about what penalties might result from not installing the update, whether it would be possible to determine when a given version of Access was deployed and whether Microsoft or the patentholder would be likely to seek redress. UK users might also question whether a US federal court's decision extends to this country.

"Nonetheless, it is clear that a risk exists and that Microsoft - having provided a compliant alternative - will not indemnify customers against liability for patent infringement," Gartner warned.

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