Thanks to all those who urged their national standards body to appeal the decision. Another article has just been published about South Africa's appeal, so it might be a good read for the uninitiated. It also contains some additional background information.

Since ISO approved OOXML as a standard, Microsoft has said it will also ensure that rival file formats work just as well in Office 2007, and that documents saved in the Office 2007 format will work smoothly with competing programs. Opponents say OOXML still locks out competitors and perpetuates Microsoft's programs' massive market share.

Microsoft declined to comment on the complaint Wednesday.

India and Brazil have filed appeals against the adoption of the Microsoft-sponsored Office Open XML (OOXML) document format as an international standard.

The world's second- and third-largest populations protesting against the ISO process is nothing to sneeze at. It's looking bad for Microsoft and ISO. There might be more appeals on their way. We hope that Malaysia will join the three we already know of. Malaysia issued a press release to sort of denounce the BRM shortly after it was over. Having just taken a glance at the Open Malaysia blog, there's nothing new to see there.

As the article at the top stated when only one appeal could be confirmed: "The appeal means Microsoft will have to wait at least another month before knowing for sure whether the file format is approved as an open standard." Things have gotten worse since. ⬆