Brazil And India Appeal Microsoft's OOXML Standard

Friday, Brazil and India appealed the International Standardization Organization's decision to make Microsoft's Office Open XML format an international standard for electronic documents.

According to the International Electrotechnical Commission, three countries have now protested the decision by the ISO last month to approve OOXML.

Last week, South Africa filed a protest against the approval of OOXML, claiming that the ISO and IEC's voting procedure was "poorly conducted and rushed," according to the Associated Press.

Even before these appeals, Microsoft's Office Open XML victory in April has not been without opposition.Critics have strongly spoken out against Microsoft's OOXML format, citing worrisome issues such as the ISO's fast-track approval process and complicated voting procedure.

Microsoft wants OOXML to be approved as an open standard so that it can apply for government contracts that require this designation, according to AP. Opponents worry that the approval and implementation of OOXML could render older government documents unreadable by non-Microsoft products.

Last week, Microsoft said that it won't be making Office 2007 compliant with the ISO/IEC-approved standard of OOXML in Office 2007's next update. Instead, Microsoft will add in Office 2007 SP2 support for Open Document Format, a standard previously approved by the ISO and IEC, and used by OpenOffice, StarOffice, and Symphony.