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Petitioner created its software products at its Redmond
facilities. It took 25 to several hundred persons to develop a
computer software product (i.e., Microsoft Windows or Microsoft
Excel).
Petitioner’s product development, which could take up to 3
years, involved three phases: (1) Product planning, during which a
functional specification and final schedule were prepared (3-12
months); (2) product development, during which the source code was
completed (and was further revised in the next phase) (6-12 months);
and (3) product stabilization, during which a gold master was
produced and the software product was released for duplication (3-8
months).
D. Production of Masters for Export
From an American-made gold master, petitioner’s product release
services group (PRS) in Redmond produced master copies of the
software and related documentation for distribution to petitioner’s
Canyon Park facility, the foreign OEM’s, and the CFC’s. These
masters contained object code for computer programs and related data
files. Petitioner’s PRS duplicated the masters on various media,
depending upon the size of the particular software product and the
distribution channel.
Petitioner’s products used magnetic tape for masters provided
to the foreign OEM’s. Specifically, during the years in issue, PRS
provided masters to the foreign OEM’s on .25-inch magnetic tapes,
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Last modified: May 25, 2011