-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
No easy fix for Word legal woes
,----[ Quote ]
| That leads me to my next point. Let's say a miracle happens, and Microsoft
| does make the changes in Word and it actually works. What about all those
| billions of documents that are already in the old format styles? What about
| the hundreds of millions of users still using the older versions of Office?
| Every Office user in the world would end up having to fight with incompatible
| files and conversion woes. That would go over really well don't you think?
|
| I've also heard it suggested that the i4i patent be over-turned. Oh kid, if
| over-turning patents were easy, everyone would be doing it.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft says they won't settle. So did RIM. They'll settle. The only fast
| way out of a patent lawsuit that's reached this point is surrender and that's
| exactly what Microsoft will end up doing.
|
| Ironically, if Microsoft hadn't insisted on shoving its own proprietary Open
| XML standard down users' throats and had whole-heartily supported the truly
| open ODF (Open Document Format), Word would have an option for its users that
| would have avoided the i4i patent mess. Oh well, too late now!
`----
http://blogs.computerworld.com/14559/no_easy_fix_for_word_legal_woes
Recent:
Softpatent trolls OOXML and Word
,----[ Quote ]
| We may add that while Microsoft always pays lip service to patent reform and
| patent quality, it effectively obstructed even moderate steps of pragmatic
| reform in the field of software patenting with massive lobbying investment
| and an ideological agenda. An ideological motivation you don't find among all
| the other players which have a real business. The massive lobbying also
| applies to colonial attitudes towards patent regimes of third nations in
| which the American company operates, or the European Union, our main area of
| operations as the FFII e.V. Ironically Microsoft itself is a favourite target
| of troll challenges and no one knows how much profits Marshall Phelps
| actually generates by selling their Microsoft FAT patents. In the spectacular
| case of TomTom we were told it was a very small amount. Some American critics
| as Brian Kahin speak of a patent bubble of low value patents but how is it
| going to burst? When you have a licensing business a good patent is one that
| hurts. Maybe the Encyclopedia Brittannica is an example, it failed
| commercially and now became an (unsuccesful) patent enforcement agency
| against actual market players.
|
| In the recent referral G03/08 about software patentability an European Patent
| Office case named T 424/03 (Microsoft) was center to the debate. Find the
| Amicus letters here. Currently you also have a pending referral on Bilski in
| the US Supreme Court which is more far reaching than software. In the US many
| examination tests were dismantled such as the machine or transformation box
| test which opened the flood gates and unbalanced the system. It was
| reintroduced under the Bilski ruling but appealed at the supreme court. The
| Bilski test does not rule out software or business method patents but
| provides means to reduce the pressure within the examination system in later
| stages.
|
| First you wreck the law, then the trolls wreck you.
|
| [...]
|
| Right now ISO/IEC 29500 ("OOXML") is patent encumbered and cannot be called
| an "open standard" according to conventional definitions and looks unusable
| for the public sector.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-175409/softpatent-trolls-ooxml-and-word
Microsoft gets XML patent
,----[ Quote ]
| For a few years the Vole had been trying to create open standards derived
| from its own XML-based file formats, such as XPS and Office XML. True, much
| of its work was seen as an attempt to stop competing formats, such as the
| Open Document Format. However Microsoft did get some support for its cunning
| plan.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1528745/microsoft-xml-patent
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
iEYEARECAAYFAkqJ3wIACgkQU4xAY3RXLo7luwCcCDfMQKEH9XDfUaaClx5nuPYQ
bJ4AnRgXxTY9M7iSbfVSh0JwjKxmCM21
=Dn56
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
|
