Microsoft’s licensing the Office 2007 UI. Not at all related to mobile devices, but very interesting because it’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone talk about licensing UI systems. Microsoft is being very liberal with the licensing terms, but are they really able to require people to obtain a license? (On the upside, getting a license gives you access to a 120 page guidebook for designing Office-like UIs).
“Today, we’re announcing a licensing program for the 2007 Microsoft Office system user interface which allows virtually anyone to obtain a royalty-free license to use the new Office UI in a software product, including the Ribbon, galleries, the Mini Toolbar, and the rest of the user interface.”
Link: Licensing the 2007 Microsoft Office User Interface (msdn.com)
Post a Comment