Is the MS Ribbon/Office UI License worth worrying

Question

Imagine I want to create an application which is very similar to MS Word 2007, using C++ in VS2008 and the MFC Feature Pack. For the ribbon, there are 3 options available to me:

1. Use the ribbon from MFC Feature Pack without acquiring a license.
   Probably dodgy in the long run. You're all right until your product becomes a global success, at which point MS Legal send the heavies round. But could they really do anything about it?

2. Use the ribbon from MFC Feature Pack, but try to acquire a license.
   I believe that if I should try to register an Office UI License, the chances are that I would be turned down because it is a competing product:

   The license is available for applications on any platform, except for applications that compete directly with the five Office applications that currently have the new UI (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access).

3. Use a 3rd party ribbon control.
   If I were to buy a license of the BCGControlBar Library for about £500 from BCGSoft -- whose ribbon bar is used by MS in the MFC Feature Pack -- then I could use the ribbon in my app with no problem.

I don't want to spend any money unless absolutely necessary. How about if I use option #1 until I get hassled about it, at which point I could ditch it and go for #3? Would it be too late?

Of course all the above is hypothetical... ;)

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Note: I don't care about any patents or copyrights relating to the similarity between my product and Word, that's just an example. This question is only concerned with the ribbon licensing aspect.

Answer 1

If Microsoft ever decides to come after you, you're dead. Regardless of the merits of the case, you'll be forced to settle just to keep from bleeding to death with lawyers fees. They have much deeper pockets than you do.

And remember that in the U.S. at least, damages for patent infringement are much greater if they can prove you knew about the patent and willfully violated it. Posting in a public forum would be proof enough, I think.