That Microsoft Injunction

[Chris Despopoulos <despopoulos_chriss -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Ok...

I didn't wade through the entire patent that Microsoft claims protects it from this injunction. The idea is that these two patents are very similar, and the dispute is over who got there first. I did read the initial blurb and waded through a little of the deeper statements.  It looks suspiciously to me like the patent says, "Here's a new idea...  We'll use XML to represent documents in an application-specific way!"

 I have a new idea...  We'll use an internal combustion engine to power a five-wheeled car.

Seriously, what does this patent bring to the table, except a custom, self-contained expression of what should be processing instructions, encapsulated in the elements themselves?  That's not new, it's a heresy that Goldfarb has been warning against for decades. I'm sure you could never patent the *proper* use of XML because it's an open standard.  So why should you be able to patent the improper use of it?  

Does anybody really think this can fly?  Do you think it should?  Are the open standards committees getting involved in any way?

cud




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