After Microsoft lost an Excel Patent dispute, it has been forced to request Microsoft Office users to update all current installations of Office Professional Edition 2003 and Office Access 2003 with Office 2003 SP2, and Office XP Professional and Access 2002 with the Office XP SP3 Patch.Carlos Armando Amado filed a patent in 1990 for software which helped transfer data between Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Access database via a single spreadsheet. He claimed that Microsoft included his technology in Microsoft Access program between 1995 and 2002 without licensing it.
Microsoft lost the case to Carlos and was ordered to pay $8.9 million in damages for infringing the patent, an award covering sales of Office between March 1997 and July 2003.
Microsoft Office users may be exposing themselves to third party patent claims if they do not upgrade. Microsoft has promised to indemnify customers from these claims but in it's licence requires that customers "immediately" upgrade to the non-infringing version.
If Microsoft clients do not make the changes when they are technically obliged to, they will no longer be covered by Microsoft’s guarantee against patent infringement liability.
Microsoft is also recommending that customers update their existing software with the new code.
How to determine your Office 2003 version
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