14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against Canadian-based Corel Corporation for allegedly copying the company’s ribbon UI first introduced in its own Office productivity suite.
A report by The Recorder and citing lawsuit documents reveals that Corel used the ribbon in Word Perfect, a productivity software solution that’s being advertised as an Office alternative. Microsoft says in court papers that Corel is even marketing Word Perfect as a product that copies the look and feel of its own Office suite.
"Corel has thus deliberately capitalized on the ready familiarity and rich functionality of the Microsoft interfaces and has taken advantage of Microsoft's years of effort and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in those interfaces," the company's lawyers explained, according to the aforementioned source.
It’s payback time
While Microsoft says that it attempted to get in touch with Corel back in February 2010 to discuss the issue, officials of the Canadian company never replied, so it decided to go ahead and file a lawsuit.
But what’s interesting is that Microsoft’s legal complaint comes only a few months after Corel itself sued the Redmond-based software giant for using three of its patents in the Office for Android device productivity suite.
Microsoft hasn’t offered a statement to confirm or deny whether these accusations are true or not, but it has suggested that its lawsuit could be the company’s very own answer to Corel’s legal complaint.
“[The lawsuit] is in direct response to the meritless claims made by Corel,” a company spokesperson continues.
Corel WordPerfect indeed mimics Microsoft’s ribbon to offer a familiar working interface, but it’s not the only productivity suite and Office alternative that comes with such a feature, so the lawsuit might indeed be an answer to the Canadians’ very own patent-infringement complaint.
Most likely, the two will settle both disputes very soon, without any financial compensation.