Microsoft just patented a fucking slider. Then sued Corel using it.

[1823alex]

I agree that this is a stupid thing to go after Corel over but infringement is just that.

If Corel did a perfect copy then they are in the wrong and maybe they should pay royalty for it or work something out. If Corel made a slight change then no more issues.

 

 

Negative, Corel has been around for a long time, almost as long as MS Word.

 

This latest version does look quite similar so MS does have a right to complain. I don't know what Corel was thinking, they have the next best Word editor to MS in fact Corel's out did MS Office for a while there, though it was a while ago.

I think people think it's funny that they are being sued over a slider and not the entire rip of the UI and design. I mean it looks like a perfect rip of MS office, but they're getting sued for the slider, the thing no one cares about or never pays attention to.

[MrDynamicMan]

Well, you see, with the right intonations, Microsoft is a term in and of itself, if you know what I mean... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

*sniff* nah man. That's microscoft paint.

/big lez reference

[TheGosuStandard]

I didn't think anyone still used Corel Suite, and that definitely looks like a complete ripoff of Office 2010. 

 

BUT MS needs competitors, so getting rid of them isn't good either.

 

Isn't there the Google suite, libreoffice, etc? 

 

Office is one of MS main products, got to defend their turf.

[dalekphalm]

I didn't think anyone still used Corel Suite, and that definitely looks like a complete ripoff of Office 2010. 

 

BUT MS needs competitors, so getting rid of them isn't good either.

Gosu has a good point. Corel hasn't been a major competitor to Office in a long time. At this point, Google Docs is their biggest competitor. There are of course the open source suites too, such as LibreOffice, OpenOffice (Now pretty much abandoned), KingsoftOffice, etc.

 

Microsoft has plenty of competitors. Some of them are similar in feature parity, but most aren't as good in the UI, and even then, Office still has the most feature rich suite (though your average home user will never use those features).

 

Isn't there the Google suite, libreoffice, etc? 

 

Office is one of MS main products, got to defend their turf.

[Prömetheus]

they deserve it. 

It's a freaking ripoff of office lol yeah the do deserve it 

[typographie]

I think people think it's funny that they are being sued over a slider and not the entire rip of the UI and design. I mean it looks like a perfect rip of MS office, but they're getting sued for the slider, the thing no one cares about or never pays attention to.

What no one else seems to be mentioning is that Corel's WordPerfect software is actually significantly older than Word—Word just made it to Windows earlier. There was a time, long ago, where WordPerfect was the dominant word processor. It's possible that a lot of what we today think of as "core Word features" might have come from Corel in the first place.

 

To some degree, features in software suites like these become industry standards. It's impossible to have a competitive product if you expect your customers to have to re-learn everything in order to use your software, so it's inevitable that they end up looking similar. By the standards of some in this thread, InDesign might be a "rip off" of QuarkXPress; every other raster graphics program would be a rip off of Photoshop; Vegas could be seen as a rip off of Premiere, etc.

[Doobeedoo]

That Corel design tho

[deviant88]

I understand where their grudge is coming from Corel looks retarded chinese copy product but i hate patent wars even more than i hate chinese copies so fuck MS.

 

Since when can you patent a certain design? unless Corel is using C# forms or wpf controls but even then it makes no sense since they give out that technology for free mostly and then sue someone for making a product with it wouldnt make sense.

[Briggsy]

Good ol' M$. Its cheaper and safer to sue or buyout everyone and be anti-competitive, then to give competitors a chance. Although, I don't know why anyone would pay money for Corel when there is google apps and OpenOffice available - at their core, office suites haven't changed much in the past couple decades, with the exception of UI changes and cloud-based saving and editing. 

 

[GoodBytes]

Good ol' M$. Its cheaper and safer to sue or buyout everyone and be anti-competitive, then to give competitors a chance. Although, I don't know why anyone would pay money for Corel when there is google apps and OpenOffice available - at their core, office suites haven't changed much in the past couple decades, with the exception of UI changes and cloud-based saving and editing.

1- Corel is not a competitor since the early 90's, when they basically given up on themselves from innovating, and making a good quality Office suit anymore.

2- Corel has been doing the same thing for YEARS again Microsoft on anything from Office, and repeatedly lost in nearly all cases.

3- Microsoft is now playing the same game as Corel, probably to show them how stupid they look.

[CaptainGazzz]

Since Microsoft isn't really abusing this patent, I don't really care. Corel looks like an Office 2007 ripoff, Microsoft should sue the living hell out of them.

[SuperCookie78]

Corel's program looks so similar to Microsoft office. But a slider!!! That's how their handling this. I think they could have done better

[Guest Kloaked]

HAH

 

Go die in hold microsoft

 

Yeah lets hope for the death of the forerunner of universal software.

[AresKrieger]

A non BS patent case, I'm shocked. (seriously that is almost identical MS office)

[GeekJump]

Legitimate reason to sue for once!

 

Microsoft is probably using the slider just as a little extra ammo for their case. Since the patent existed so long but they haven't really bother to attack anyone else using it, I doubt they care about the slider itself and more so the fact Corel Office looks IDENTICAL to previous versions of office lol

[thexzenon]

That's such a blatant rip-off of older MS Office, hooooooly shit! Samsung early copycat designs now look tame in comparison to this. Thanks for also informing me that Corel has/had an office suite.

[LAwLz]

A non BS patent case, I'm shocked. (seriously that is almost identical MS office)

It is a bullshit patent case though.

They are being sued for the slider. If Microsoft wins this, it means that anyone who uses a similar slider can be sued as well. The patent they are using does not cover any other aspect of the program. It really is "if you use a slider like this then Microsoft can sue you for all the profits you have made with the entire program".

If Microsoft wins this case then we, as humans, have lost.

 

I think this is just as much bullshit as Apple suing Samsung for rounded edges on the phone (yes that was actually a thing Samsung got sued for).

 

 

 

There are legitimate copycat complaints to be made, but the slider is not one of them. Siding with Microsoft on this means siding with the idea that a slider should be patent-able and everyone who infringe on it owes all their profits to Microsoft. That is far worse for us as consumers, than letting someone get away with ripping off the GUI of a program.

 

Just to highlight how incredibly stupid this is, imagine if it was Apple who patented this slider. Do you think that it would be right for Apple to take Microsoft to court and be able to sue them for all the money Microsoft has made from Office, just because of that slider? If you side with Microsoft on this, then you must also side with Apple in that hypothetical scenario.

[AresKrieger]

snip

Well yeah, I guess the slider part is bull, I wonder if they could have sued them for the blatant copying of ms office, idk, either way Corel should go away, though a better reason than the slider would be optimal I agree.