Office 2007 UI licensing

You do need to get a license from Microsoft to use the Office UI even if the component vendor already has a license to distribute the components to you.  The component vendors cannot pass through the rights to you and we need to be able to distinguish licensed software from unlicensed software without placing a monitoring burden on the component vendors.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/nov06/11-21officeui.mspx


Also Codejock is not listed under the Office UI Licensing Partners?

ABuenger wrote: You do need to get a license from Microsoft to use the Office UI even if the component vendor already has a license to distribute the components to you.  The component vendors cannot pass through the rights to you and we need to be able to distinguish licensed software from unlicensed software without placing a monitoring burden on the component vendors. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/nov06/11-21officeui.mspx Also Codejock is not listed under the Office UI Licensing Partners?

I think this is very fair of Microsoft, they have obviously invested a great deal of money and time in their UI.

I don't intend to implement the "ribbon" UI, but for anyone who intends to signs up for the license, how much effort will it take you to comply with a 120 page specification, with sections like:

"The layout of controls on the Ribbon MUST change in real-time when the application window is resized by dragging with the mouse. The change in the layout of controls on the Ribbon MUST NOT be delayed until after the application window has been resized and the left mouse button is released."

FYI - there is more to read on the subject here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/11/21/licensing-the-2007-microsoft-office-user-interface.aspx


My impression is that, for the most part, MS just wants to prevent the other office suites (OpenOffice, etc) from having the same UI as MS Office. I would expect that if you're working on an in-house application or are a small ISV this won't be a problem one way or the other (IANAL - so do not take this as legal advice).

In my humble opinion the entire concept of licensing Ribbon UI is completely sick.

Where can I get a clear list of controls/themes/skins etc. that are part of CodeJock Xtreme ToolkitPro (for MFC) that are "licensed" from Microsoft?

This is a critical issue for me since our product competes with MS Office (hence I cannot license the Office UI).  I absolutely need to know which parts of CodeJock to avoid using.

Thanks,
Keith