Microsoft’s Office Open XML may lose its ISO recognition after India, Brazil and South Africa launching an appeal against the decision, a standards agency said on Friday.

The Head of the IEC, or the International Electrotechnical Commission, Jonathan Bucks said that the "appeals were filed during the course of the week," to AFP.

The IEC and fellow agency the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) will now spend 30 days evaluating whether the appeal meets the criteria. If so, the appeals will be then transferred to the technical appeals committees in both standards agencies.

Last month, a vote saw the ISO approving OOXML as an ISO standard, with 26 opposing the move. Australia abstained from voting. The ISO is now looking at ways to make it compatible with its rival format - ODF, or the Open Document Format.

News in Brief: Staff working in the Prime Minister’s household or in his office have been asked to remove their profiles after pictures taken by his executive assistant John Fisher on the weekend while he was travelling overseas with Kevin Rudd.

A Senate estimates committee heard that Mr Rudd employed him to travel with him overseas. However, the Opposition claims he was just a butler - a claim denied by his office last night.