xml-dev - RE: Software patent debate: we lose round one

[Peter Murray-Rust <peter@ursus.demon.co.uk>]

At 01:26 PM 5/31/00 -0600, Arnold, Curt wrote:
>The Forbes article mentions that the 20-year term on a patent is not an
option since all the patent treaties are based on 20-year patents.
>
>The key thing is to prevent nuisance patents from getting approved and
contesting those that do.  There was a nice point that Web patents now have
to be reviewed by a senior patent official.  However,
>the key thing we can do on xml-dev to prevent nuisance patents getting
approved is to make the archives readily accessible (by topics,
technologies, etc) and known to the Patent Office Examiners that
>cover Web technologies.  The archives looked pretty unusable last time I
checked.

I posted quite recently about the archives from 1997-02 to 2000-01 and -
unless there is something Henry and I have omitted - they ought to  be in
excellent shape. We have collected them on CDROM[1], added a complete
index, so that anyone can search for a keyword. [Of course it is more
difficult to search for concepts, especially when the titles are not well
chosen.]

It is our intention to address the current archives, and we shall need the
help of OASIS and possibly anyone else who has kept a complete record of
the traffic during the period 2000-02-*. Since the system was not
physically under our control, we cannot guarantee integrity. I think it
critical that a core of list members are - in principle - prepared to
recover a valid archive if required.

>
>I'm sure that they have fairly strict guidelines on what they can disclose
during their searches, however if the following message had appeared on
xml-dev, I'm sure that he would have gotten
>responses:
>
>From someone@yahoo.com:
>Hi, I'm new to all this, but does anyone know of an XML editor that uses a
DTD or schema to help you construct documents?

Many people reply to the poster rather than to the list, especially when
the question is "obvious".

I do think that this is a very important area where XML-DEV can play an
important role. We need a mechanism for posting "potentially useful art"
without flooding the list with half-baked ideas. We also need a robust
depository where enough explanatory material and demonstrators can be
deposited - including screenshots and logfiles.

We will also need to be tolerant of new ideas :-)

	P.

>

[1] The CDROM is available to anyone on VirtualXML -
http://www.cmlconsulting.com/
> 
Peter Murray-Rust. (CML, VHG and XML-DEV)
CMLC and VirtualXML ConCourse: http://www.cmlconsulting.com/
CML http://www.xml-cml.org/
Virtual HyperGlossary http://www.vhg.org.uk/

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