Oxymoron of the day: Working Lunch
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I4i gets patent confirmed in the US
THE SOFTWARE outfit that humbled the finest legal minds that Microsoft could chuck at it has had a key patent confirmed in the US.
Tiny Toronto based I4i that has 30 staff won an injunction in Texas last year preventing Microsoft from selling copies of Word 2003. The patent was for XML and jurors said that the Vole would have to write a cheque for $290 million.
Microsoft is appealing that decision and as part of the process, I4i has had to have the patent looked at again by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Fortunately for I4i the USPTO has said that the patent is valid.
I4i chairman Loudon Owen said having your patent put into re-examination is akin to having one of your most prized possessions put up for questioning. Not sure that my computer can actually answer any questions. Speaking to the Guardian he said that he would defend the XML feature against possible patent-infringing software.
In March a US federal Court of Appeals said Microsoft had "wilfully infringed" I4i's XML patent, rejecting its rehearing petition. Microsoft has until 27 August to start a new appeals process against the ruling.
Microsoft public affairs director Kevin Kutz said, "We continue to believe there are important matters of patent law that still need to be properly addressed and we are considering our options." µ
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The patent references SGML and explains in detail how their system differs from it. Evidently the examiners agreed.
XML is trivially derived from SGML, which dates from 1986 or before. So sorry, but no.
I sincerely hope that the US reforms its utterly cretinous patent system soon. Because it is a *really bad* joke.
.... but the patent in question was filed in 1994, and so predates XML by 2 years
Im as pleased as the next man to see M$ take one on the chin, but please dear god not like this. Not with chickenshit "intellectual property" lawsuits.
Because the idea of taking some word processor metadata or whatever and encoding it in XML is totally novel and nonobvious. To a retarded amoeba. On drugs.
About the only redeeming feature of the whole sorry affair is that M$ have done more than their own share of patent bullying, so it is kind of poetic even if it isnt exactly justice.
I doubt the lawyers are humbled. As with all professional "defenders", setbacks only point up their importance and results in getting more money.
M$ keeps losing on this, but they've stolen enough elsewhere to fund more arrogance and stupidity. However, I think the end of an era is upon M$.
The whole point of XML is that it is an *Extensible* Markup Language. How can you possibly patent extending any 'office' XML document with custom data islands? The patent offices are clueless.
I can't find any specific wording in the XML specification that predicts it, unfortunately. Still, I'm sure there's something about 'not obvious to one skilled in the relevant art' in patent law - and this is obvious to the nth degree to anyone who understands XML.