PDF Export, the most awaited feature in the new Office Suite may never see the light of day as talks between Adobe and Microsoft regarding PDF support in Microsoft Office 2007 have failed. What's more surprising is that nobody had the slightest hint that Adobe and Microsoft are talking over PDF licensing issues in Office 12.Last October, when Microsoft annouced PDF support in Office 12, Steven Sinofsky quickly dismissed claims that PDF is an Adobe product. According to Sinofsky:
PDF was developed by Adobe and has been available in a public specification for a long time. It has been offered by Adobe as an ISO standard. Microsoft used this standard to guide development of the PDF technology in Office 12Unfortunately, the issue is more complex than what Sinofsky or anyone at Redmond would have anticipated.
PDF may be an open standard file format but it is still proprietary to Adobe. Clearly, Adobe is unhappy with Microsoft for including PDF saving features in Office 2007. They have now asked Microsoft to remove native PDF support from Office suite and provide it as a separate add-on for a fee.
According to Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has agreed to remove the PDF export feature from Office 12, but is unwilling to charge for it. The two parties have not reached an agreement about using Adobe technology in Microsoft Office and therefore, Microsoft is preparing for a possible antitrust suit by Adobe.