NEWS
Microsoft is bracing itself for a legal battle in Europe with Adobe Systems, following a breakdown in negotiations last week over the use of Adobe's PDF technology in Microsoft's Office applications suite.
Microsoft, which last October announced it would support Adobe's PDF format in its forthcoming Office upgrade, has reached an impasse after four months of talks, a Microsoft attorney said on Friday. Adobe wants the software giant to remove the PDF "save as" feature from its beta version of Office 2007 or to charge a fee for it, whereas Microsoft wants to offer that feature for free, said Dave Heiner, the deputy general counsel who oversees Microsoft's antitrust cases.
Heiner said: "The 'save as PDF' feature is the second most popular request we get from customers.
"Adobe has told the world that PDF is an open format... and [rival] products OpenOffice, WordPerfect Office and Apple['s applications] already support PDF and tout it as a selling feature. Microsoft should be able to support PDF as well."
Adobe has threatened to file an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission if the software giant includes the PDF 'save as' feature in Office 2007, Heiner added.
Adobe, which acknowledges it has had discussions with regulatory agencies worldwide about Microsoft's use of its PDF format, contends it has not violated any antitrust or price-fixing regulations.
An Adobe spokeswoman said: "The regulators we talk to are the same regulators that cover antitrust and price regulatory issues. So we believe we are well within the bounds of the law."
Microsoft first learned of Adobe's concerns in a February letter from Adobe chief executive Bruce Chizen to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, according to a source close to Microsoft.
In the past, Adobe has raised objections to Microsoft's plans to put its own XML Paper Specification (XPS) format, developed under the code name Metro, into the upcoming Windows Vista update.
As a result, Microsoft plans to remove from Office 2007 the ability to save documents as either PDF or XPS formats. Those capabilities can be added back in by customers via a free download from Microsoft's site.
Also, Microsoft said on Friday it will give computer makers the option to remove some of the XPS features from Windows Vista. Vista will still use XPS technology under the hood to handle printing duties but user options such as viewing and creating XPS documents will be omitted if PC makers choose that option.
Microsoft, which last week released a test version of its Office 2007 package, now plans to remove the PDF feature from that beta as soon as feasible. The company does not expect that effort to lead to a delay in the scheduled release of Office 2007, which has already been postponed.
CNET News.com's Ina Fried contributed to this story
Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. klymax
Adobe's Acrobat 7.0 Professional allows saving of documents in .doc and several other formats in addition to the traditional conversion of documents to .pdf format. What fee is paid to Microsoft for support of their Save As... feature?
2. Graham Coles
Either it is an open standard or isn't.
If it is, it seems discriminatory to try and prevent Microsoft from including it in office when everyone else has it.
I don't even like office that much, but if I'm forced to use it, I'd at least like to be able to save documents in a suitable format for distribution; word is a lousy format for distributing documents on the web (I don't want to edit them, nor do I want to have to keep dismissing (easily breakable) password dialogs every time I try to read one!)
I've always assumed microsoft didn't use pdf because of 'not created here' arrogance, now I'm wondering if there wasn't another reason beginning with 'A' - Adobe, go stick it your ear.
3. Richard Davies
This is getting ridiculous. Why should one company have exclusive rights to a format such as PDF?
I think its great that Microsoft were putting in this functionality...I think its just sour grapes as Adobe might lose abit of profit. well boo hoo!!!
I thought everything was now about interoperability? Obviously not.