The link is to information that is a little old (June 2000). Is there a more recent update that is disturbing you? Did this particular example ever go anywhere? Patenting file formats might be disturbing, and I'm not an expert, but I don't see how it would stop someone from reverse engineering a "reader" or a "writer" of that format. Wouldn't it just mean that one wouldn't be able to create a file format that is the same? I guess it depends on how the patent is written, I suppose.
-Mark > -----Original Message----- > From: Andrew C. Oliver [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 4:57 PM > To: POI Developers List; Jakarta General List > Subject: fair notice > > > I appologize to those of us who get this 2 times... > > This could later affect POI (http://jakarta.apache.org/poi), but does > not currently: http://www.advogato.org/article/101.html > Granted POI would be in "good company" with a wide berth of software and > there would likely be a retributative effect that > might backfire on Microsoft. > > I'll keep this brief, but the patenting of file formats could be a > disturbing trend. I'll certainly keep an eye on this. > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
