Re: [xml-dev] Yahoo! Tech article on injunction against MS Word

[Kurt Cagle <kurt.cagle@gmail.com>]

I think it serves as an interesting counterpoint to the Microsoft XML Word Processing Document patent that the Redmond company received earlier this week. The IADS patent is clearly silly, and there is, even at that point, enough information that an Amica Curiae could be filed by anyone in the XML community, if they were so willing to get involved in this. On the other hand, it also serves to point out the Microsoft patent isn't all that much less silly, and more significantly does not represent an innovative new technology but clearly an obvious use of an existing technology. Of course, it being Microsoft, that one will probably stand, while the other, equally spurious patent gets laughed out of court.


Kurt Cagle
Managing Editor
http://xmlToday.org

On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 7:43 PM, Amelia A Lewis <amyzing@talsever.com> wrote:

On Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:41:13 -0500, Len Bullard wrote:
> We really need to find a copy of the SGML systems still extant.  One gets
> tired of the patent disputes.  We depend too much on the web for resources
> and forget the design history of our technology predates the web.

Uh.  Probably something that needs to be done; possibly true that folks
forget.

Relevant to the current case?  Doubtful.  It's the eastern district of
Texas.  You could patent ice cream there.  Or bread.  When judges in
appeals circuits start making jokes from the bench (they have),
credibility of such cases, regardless of merits, drops to nil.

Amy!
--
Amelia A. Lewis                    amyzing {at} talsever.com
Money can't buy happiness, but poverty can't buy *anything*.

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