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ODF safe from Microsoft / i4i Lawsuit
,----[ Quote ]
| Late last week, analysts from Gartner and the Burton Group expressed the
| opinion that ODF could also be in breach of a patent belonging to Canadian
| company i4i which, a court ruled, Microsoft had breached.
|
| [...]
|
| Other reporters, who have assumed that any use of XML could fall foul of the
| i4i patent, get short shrift from Hickins and others.
`----
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/odf-safe-from-microsoft---i4i-lawsuit-1620
Microsoft Case Not Aimed at Open-Source Community, i4i Execs Say
,----[ Quote ]
| In an interview with eWEEK, i4i Chairman Loudon Owen and founder Michel Vulpe
| asserted that while they were determined to pursue their patent infringement
| case against Microsoft, many of the open-source community's fears over the
| patent were unfounded.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-Case-Not-Aimed-At-OpenSource-Community-Says-i4i-Execs-565642/
Why didn't Microsoft tell us about i4i's patent litigation during the OOXML
standards push?
,----[ Quote ]
| I have a question for Microsoft. Why didn't they tell us about this i4i
| patent litigation during the OOXML ISO process? Didn't we need to know?
|
| [...]
|
| Now what? Well, look at this, from Government Computer News:
|
| i4i said it has looked at OpenOffice and found it doesnât infringe on its
| patents.
|
| So, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Straight from the horse's mouth,
| so no need to look to any other part of the horse's anatomy. No need for
| analysts' opinions and such. OpenOffice.org is clean, according to the i4i
| folks, and it's their patent. As for ODF, it doesn't use CustomXML, and it
| had no plans to do so, despite what you've been reading in the fuddy papers.
|
| [...]
|
| You know what else was happening around March of 2007 and thereafter? Go to
| Groklaw's ODF/OOXML chronology pages, and you'll see. They were twisting
| Massachusetts' arm to accept their competing format instead of just ODF, and
| their supporters were raising a stink about ODF not being easily accessible
| to the disabled.
|
| Meanwhile, Microsoft was, we now know, in litigation that could make their
| format as submitted unusable by anyone in the entire US. And they never said
| a word that I ever heard. Anyone know about this patent case during the ISO
| ram-through of OOXML? Anyone? Maybe ISO needs to add this to their To Do
| List: find out if there are patents threatening a proposed standard. Or
| better yet, could someone take software and patents to Nevada and get them a
| quickie divorce? They're not compatible.
|
| Remember when the OOXML convenor Alex Brown said, after the OOXML approval,
| that he agreed ODF was cleaner than OOXML?
|
| "I'd go with that. I think ISO/IEC 26300 (ODF 1.0) can be compared to a
| neat house built on good foundations which is not finished; 29500 (OOXML)
| is a baroque cliffside castle replete with toppling towers, secret
| passages and ghosts: it is all too finished."
|
| Well, it appears he was correct. ODF is cleaner. And now we know where one
| secret passage in OOXML leads. To a US courtroom, an injunction, and a $290
| million judgment. Towers are toppling.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090817235436439
New developments, details in Microsoft Word ban
http://www.itwire.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27021&Itemid=53
Recent:
ODF Not Implicated In i4i Suit
,----[ Quote ]
| That contradicts assertions by Burton Group analyst Guy Creese, who told
| Visual Studio Magazine that the patent could spell trouble for the next
| version of ODF because âODF 1.2 will move to a similar custom schema that
| OOXML has.â
|
| Likewise, Gartner analyst Brian Prentice told CNET that the fallout from the
| lawsuit may âalso impact ODF.â
`----
http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10003062/odf-not-implicated-in-i4i-suit/
Court Bans Microsoft From Selling Word
,----[ Quote ]
| In the latest apparent case of the U.S. patent system run amok, Judge Leonard
| Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a
| permanent injunction on Tuesday preventing Microsoft from selling versions of
| Word that handle custom XML in the form of the .DOCX, .DOCM, and .XML file
| formats. Which would mean that Microsoft is now forbidden from selling Word
| 2003 or Word 2007. And since it also forbids Microsoft from testing such
| versions of Word, there would seem to be implications for Office 2010 as
| well.
`----
http://technologizer.com/2009/08/12/court-bans-microsoft-from-selling-word/
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
Last year:
Is Microsoft Now Banned from EU Contracts?
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=697&blogid=14
Euro MP thinks Microsoft should be banned from government contracts
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/10/member-eu-parliament-asks
Green MEP says Microsoft should be excluded from EU contract awarding procedure
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/106338/from/rss09
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