Stephen Kellett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: | In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, John Chambers | <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes || other fora: Microsoft has received a US patent on some of their XML || encodings generated by Word. This may not matter much yet outside the || US, though Europe is probably going to enable similar laws shortly. || In the US, decoding such files with software not licensed by || Microsoft is not only a patent infringement; it is also a DMCA || violation. | | That is really excellent news. Why? | 1) If proof were needed that patenting is now defeating the object it | was intended to serve, this is a very fine example. | | 2) If MS do start prosecuting based on this, its a good reason for | even more people to move away from Microsoft Office software. I'd have | thought the Linux camp would be overjoyed by such a stupid move as | patenting a document interchange format. Jef Raskin must be wondering | why he bothers with his user interface work when its all thrown away | because you can't even share the document you wrote. | | The ecommerce company I work for will not accept purchase orders in | Microsoft format because Microsoft keep changing the document format | and thus force an upgrade on you. We insist on PDF because Adobe | provide a free reader (I've recently noticed MS now provide a free | Word reader). No going back, we're sticking with Adobe. | | I don't dislike Microsoft - the MSDN programme is superb, OSDN doesn't | come close. I do dislike enforced upgrades of software, burning of | customers. Microsoft Office policy fits this nicely, from what I've | seen. | | Taking the above patent idea a bit further: Patenting a data format, | thats a bit like patenting DNA (pointless, we all own it) or patenting | the alphabet. Patenting the use of such ideas is also pointless | (reading is a public domain activity as is the mammalian response to | various DNA sequences and enzymes, etc). | | Sorry, end rant. I'm surprised I haven't seen the above patent | mentioned on Slashdot, although I could've missed it.
I think it is quite fair enough to mention things like this as they have the potential to affect so many people's lives, paticularly anyone who is using or engineering software. While the overall concept of a software patent might appear to be a good one, XML encodings are not software - they are documents. If somebody were to write a program to do something particular with XML, then as a program that would be software and could potentially be patented. Also, the source code for that software could be subject to copyright and any name it used could be registered as a trademark. XML is a mark-up language, that is something which adds 'marking up' to a document in order to indicate formatting. As a document, a body of XML could be subject to copyright in exactly the same way as the content of a book or the notes of some music. Software, in other words a program, could be patented as it is a 'process' and the concept of binding sheets of paper together to make a book could have been patented because it is the design of a physical object (by the person who invented it of course). One interesting upshot of 'software patents' is that the procedure for a patent application makes the design public, at least it does in Europe though I'm not too sure how America stands on this. If the application is successfull it stops other people from using it for commercial gain but the content of the patent has to be available so that people can see exactly what it is that has been patented. As regards a patent on the process which generates the microsoft proprietary XML-type of document mark-ups, people will be able to see it - and thus derrive the microsoft proprietary standards - from the fact that the patent is available for all to read. This will mean that they will be able to create their own software programs which can work with the same documents, and they will be able to apply for a patent on that software provided the program code is not copied from microsoft. So as I see it software patents will force standards which are currently proprietary to become open ! Is patent law particularly different in America on these points ? Kevin. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
