The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand has granted Microsoft its controversial patent over the use of XML in word processing documents, but the chair of the Open Source Society, Peter Harrison, says he will be lodging an appeal as soon as possible. An Auckland man, Michael Seadon, also says he has prior art that may prove the use of XML in word processing documents has been going on long before Microsoft asked for its patent to be granted.
“On the very day the W3C ratified XML 1.0 I sent well over 10,000 word-processor documents to a UK pharmaceutical company using XML.” Seadon says he will also be lodging an appeal against the patent. However, Harrison says he doesn’t believe Seadon’s find qualifies as prior art in this case. “The patent is quite specifically about Microsoft’s XML schema for word processing and unfortunately it’s not likely that [Seadon’s] documents meet that criterion.” Harrison says Microsoft’s attempt to patent an XML schema flies in the face of the reason XML was created.
News source: Computerworld
“On the very day the W3C ratified XML 1.0 I sent well over 10,000 word-processor documents to a UK pharmaceutical company using XML.” Seadon says he will also be lodging an appeal against the patent. However, Harrison says he doesn’t believe Seadon’s find qualifies as prior art in this case. “The patent is quite specifically about Microsoft’s XML schema for word processing and unfortunately it’s not likely that [Seadon’s] documents meet that criterion.” Harrison says Microsoft’s attempt to patent an XML schema flies in the face of the reason XML was created.
News source: Computerworld
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”XML was designed to increase interoperability between systems and Microsoft’s attempt to patent one process undermines the reason XML was introduced in the first place.”
and
"A patent must be specific enough to implement and Microsoft hasn’t given that level of detail in its application.” Harrison says the application lists the elements Microsoft uses but doesn’t say what they actually do.
It seems that Microsoft is positioning themselves for a "proprietary" standard.
Also, their patent application is so vague it does not necessarily just cover THEIR schema. The patent itself may swallow up whole or in part many OTHER schemas without the application being thoroughly vetted.
That means that Microsoft doesn't use its patents to sue anyone.
Instead if you sue Microsoft they could use their patent portfolio to sue you back.
So I am more than happy to see any software patents under Microsoft's belt rather than some sue-happy lawyer firm.
I think the article could be a little more obvious, but I believe that the patent is actually over the Word XML Schema which is also known as Word Markup Language, or WordML. In this case I can see why Microsoft would submit a patent for a schema they invented. This would mean that programs that utilize their schema (and promote their compatibility with Word) would have to pay royalties to Microsoft (right?). Anyway, there are schema's that have been produces from everything to image information, sound, and 3d modelling in XML... I don't see why the authors of such schemas wouldn't be able to protect their works.
I hope this doesn't mean that they submitted a patent that would make any Word Processing program that utilizes XML (regardless of schema) would fall under their patent. Because that is just wrong. HTML, for example, is a subset of XML and has been used in a lot of different word processors for awhile now.
vague...
However, you should give the Beta version of OpenOffice 2 a try.
It handles .doc files almost perfectly (about as good as the different office versions handles each others .doc files) and loads much faster (Okay, still 10 seconds, that sucks compared to word, but it's much faster than OpenOffice 1).
really. well then why is it when a project report that has sever numbered sections in it is loaded, OpenOffice actually "removes" large parts of the document by removign and rearranging the numbered sections to how it likes it.
yeah... almost perfectly... OO is usable. but if you have Access or can afford MS Office, there's no doubt wich you should go to.
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