Microsoft Office Apps have plenty of useful features that help users manage their productivity easily without making unconscious editing mistakes or document errors. Microsoft Word (also Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) have a very useful feature that has existed for a while called “Live Preview”. Live Preview lets you preview document changes before you actually finalize your editing (thank goodness for Undo right?). For instance, when you highlight several text in your document and open any font drop-down menu, Live Preview will display that (or other chosen) font change as you pick through the available options, all without actually changing the font (just in case you selected too much text or changed your mind).
This same feature is called “RealTime preview” in WordPerfect, which is owned by Corel Software. Corel Software has now sued Microsoft for infringing their patents related to this Live Preview feature.
WordPerfect’s RealTime preview feature (WordPerfect belongs to Corel):
- U.S. Patent No. 6,731,309 on “Real time preview”
- U.S. Patent No 7,827,483 on “Real time preview”
- U.S. Patent No. 8,700,996 on “Real time preview”
Corel alleges that Microsoft’s infringement is willful. Among other things, the complaint says that “[i]n or around 2011, representatives for Corel engaged in communications with Microsoft regarding the potential sale of certain Corel patents to Microsoft, including [two of the three patents-in-suit].” The theories behind Corel’s willfulness allegations also include citations by Microsoft patent applications to some of those patents and the rejection of Microsoft patent applications by the United States Patent and Trademark Office because of certain Corel/WordPerfect patents.
15-07-27 Corel Software v. Microsoft Patent Infringement Complaint
