On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 01:52:47PM +0100, MJ Ray wrote: > Via Debian-uk, Harry Rickards, Sussex LUG, Andrew Guard and BBC: > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/technology/8197990.stm > Judge bans Microsoft Word sales > > Of course, it's being appealed on the grounds that the patent > is invalid and that Word doesn't infringe, but some are suggesting > it will show to the world just how flawed software patents are. > Which way do you think it will go?
I think that MS are correct on this and the patent is invalid. I hope so, otherwise almost any use of XML as an open standard (for instance in Open Office) seems to be blocked. Much as I like to see MS hoist with their own petard I hope that it gets declared invalid, and that this then causes other SW patents to be thrown out. > The UK is probably the legal system most similar to the US. Are > there lessons for us, or is our patent law sufficiently different? I think we are frighteningly similar. Whether our patent lawyers will take any notice is a different matter. (Off topic, but thanks for posting the 'low' URL, I find the BBC's 'hi' ones very annoying even in Firefox and unreadable in text-only browsers.) Chris C _______________________________________________ Fsfe-uk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-uk
