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This injunction only applies to new Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office licenses purchased from Microsoft on or after January 11, 2010 in or for deployment in the United States or its territories. If you are only using licenses acquired prior to January 11, 2010, you do not need to take any action.

Microsoft has updated Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 to remove the disputed functionality, which pertains to custom XML tagging. Microsoft has also created a software update for Word 2003 and Office 2003. In the vast majority of cases this functionality is not in use and requires development knowledge to implement. To learn more about the specific custom XML elements removed from Microsoft Word 2007 please read Microsoft Knowledge Base article 978951 at the following website http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978951.

In accordance with Microsoft Volume License agreement provisions, we hereby notify you that any future deployment of Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 or Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007 purchased after January 10, 2010 for use in the United States or its territories must use updated software.

If you plan future deployments of Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 or Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007 based on licenses that you purchase before January 11, 2010, no action is required and you may continue to deploy your existing version of these products. This includes all licenses purchased under any of the Microsoft Volume Licensing programs including all versions of Software Assurance.

Additionally, if you have already deployed licensed copies of these products prior to January 11, 2010, and will be submitting payment later (through the Enterprise Agreement True Up process or the Select process), then you may continue to use those deployed versions. If you are already using copies of these products through a subscription license agreement, then you may continue to use those deployed versions.

Starting January 1, 2010, updated English, Spanish, and French language versions of Microsoft Word 2007 or Microsoft Office 2007 are available for download on the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center. To update other language versions of this software, or to update copies of Microsoft Word 2003 or Microsoft Office 2003, you will find instructions on how to do so on the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center download pages for these products at https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/servicecenter/. If you require physical media, please order through your normal media fulfillment channel. If you are an Open license customer, you may order media directly from the Volume Licensing Service Center. If you are running Microsoft Word 2010 beta or Microsoft Office 2010 beta or plan to deploy these products once they are released, no action is required with respect to this notification.

If you have any questions about this information, please contact your Microsoft representative or email msftvl@microsoft.com.
Sincerely,
Microsoft Corporation