14 DAY TRIAL // In an email sent to customers, Microsoft announced that many current users of their Microsoft Office must upgrade their software. It seems as though Microsoft doesn't win every single court ruling it gets itself involved in. The email sent out was the following:
It was recently decided in a court of law that certain portions of code found in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, Microsoft Office Access 2003, Microsoft Office XP Professional and Microsoft Access 2002 infringe a third-party patent. As a result, Microsoft must make available a revised version of these products with the allegedly infringing code replaced.
Action required: As a result of the above ruling, you are required to: Install Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2 (Office 2003 SP2) for all your future deployments of Office Professional Edition 2003 and Office Access 2003, Install the Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3 Patch (Office XP SP3 Patch) for all your future deployments of Office XP Professional and Access 2002
Action requested: To keep your current systems in alignment with your future deployments of these products, Microsoft is requesting that you also update all your current Office Professional Edition 2003 and Office Access 2003 installations with Office 2003 SP2, and Office XP Professional and Access 2002 installations with the Office XP SP3 Patch.
How do I do this?: You can obtain both Office 2003 SP2 and the Office XP SP3 Patch by going to the website listed below and downloading it directly, or by contacting your reseller.
Microsoft's requiring that users install Office 2003 SP2 -- which was released last fall -- for all future deployments of Office 2003, and roll out a patch for all future installs of the earlier Office XP. Existing users can continue to run unpatched versions, but Microsoft's encouraging them to update anyway.
Jeff Campbell, the chief executive of AssetMetrix, in a statement, "This is quite a significant amount of affected installations."
analysts Michael Silver and Alexa Bona wrote, "Relatively few companies are likely to be in the middle of an Office deployment that includes Access 2002 or 2003? However, most refresh a portion of their PC installed base each year and re-image broken PCs on a daily basis, and this likely constitutes a new installation."
Let's hope Office 2007 comes out soon.