jonathon wrote:
On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 12:33 PM, Ganesha Bhaskara wrote:
Does this put MSFT is a stronger position to enforce its office file format
related patents ?
It either will have a no impact, or a negative impact to enforce their patents.
The latter will occur if, and only if, the specific patents are listed
in that document, and labeled as such. The reason it will be
negative, is because the full bore of FLOSS supporters will examine
the patent, and locate the prior art that Microsoft "forgot" to
mention, when they obtained the patent.
At the first lawsuit Microsoft files, that is related to a listed
patent, the defense will be that the USPTO, as usual, failed to adhere
to the law, and issued a patent that was both obvious, and based upon
prior art, showing the court several such examples that were
published, prior to Microsoft filing their patent.
xan
jonathon
Have to be careful using this defence if what I have read becomes true.
I have read that the US patent department wants to change the rules to
who files first gets the patent. This could supersede prior art.
--
Robin Laing
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