Comments on: E-book fallout from XML-related ruling? Judge said to ban Microsoft for selling Word in the U.S. http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/e-book-fallout-from-xml-related-ruling-judge-said-to-ban-microsoft-for-selling-word-in-the-us/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:28:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Felix Torres http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/e-book-fallout-from-xml-related-ruling-judge-said-to-ban-microsoft-for-selling-word-in-the-us/comment-page-1/#comment-1124123 Felix Torres Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:05:56 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/08/12/e-book-fallout-from-xml-related-ruling-judge-said-to-ban-microsoft-for-selling-word-in-the-us/#comment-1124123 1- The suit is limited to a single business-centric feature of Word: Custom XML not the open spec. http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3712 2- The suit is being appealed and MS has its own patent on xml word processing documents. http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=22595&tag=nl.e539 Venue shopping can be very productive for shysters and their customers but in this case it comes down to how badly MS wants to stomp these particular cockroaches. They may end up settling for a couple minutes of Office revenue to make them go away or they might choose to make an example of them. I would prefer the latter but I suspect it'll be cheaper to bribe'em. 1- The suit is limited to a single business-centric feature of Word: Custom XML not the open spec.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3712

2- The suit is being appealed and MS has its own patent on xml word processing documents.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=22595&tag=nl.e539

Venue shopping can be very productive for shysters and their customers but in this case it comes down to how badly MS wants to stomp these particular cockroaches. They may end up settling for a couple minutes of Office revenue to make them go away or they might choose to make an example of them. I would prefer the latter but I suspect it’ll be cheaper to bribe’em.

]]> By: HeavyG http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/e-book-fallout-from-xml-related-ruling-judge-said-to-ban-microsoft-for-selling-word-in-the-us/comment-page-1/#comment-1123441 HeavyG Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:29:14 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/08/12/e-book-fallout-from-xml-related-ruling-judge-said-to-ban-microsoft-for-selling-word-in-the-us/#comment-1123441 <i>"So what might this mean for the e-book world, which increasingly has moved to XML-based technology? If nothing else, could this be one more powerful argument against proprietary formats?"</i> This ruling will be overturned and the patent will be declared invalid. The suit isn't about XML itself as XML is an open W3C spec and not a proprietary format (which ePub relies on). “So what might this mean for the e-book world, which increasingly has moved to XML-based technology? If nothing else, could this be one more powerful argument against proprietary formats?”

This ruling will be overturned and the patent will be declared invalid.

The suit isn’t about XML itself as XML is an open W3C spec and not a proprietary format (which ePub relies on).

]]> By: pond http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/e-book-fallout-from-xml-related-ruling-judge-said-to-ban-microsoft-for-selling-word-in-the-us/comment-page-1/#comment-1123436 pond Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:24:50 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/08/12/e-book-fallout-from-xml-related-ruling-judge-said-to-ban-microsoft-for-selling-word-in-the-us/#comment-1123436 According to Mary Foley's Microsoft blog over at ZDnet, what is at issue is not the word xml file format, but rather the ability that word has to allow users to customize the xml schema on their own. This is an issue for corporations, not individuals. It might be an issue for publishing houses that wish to modify the standard word xml schema in-house. It also applies only to word files, not to powerpoint or xcel files. The suit was brought in East Texas, said to be happy hunting grounds for patent trolls; and if it's true that the east Texas federal court is more favorably inclined toward plaintiffs, Microsoft would find its chances improved on the appellate level. It does seem curious that a Canadian company would file suit against a Washington-state corporation in Texas, doesn't it? Anyway, I don't think this is anything for any of us to worry about, except to lament the lamentable state of patents and 'intellectual property' in general in the USA today. According to Mary Foley’s Microsoft blog over at ZDnet, what is at issue is not the word xml file format, but rather the ability that word has to allow users to customize the xml schema on their own. This is an issue for corporations, not individuals. It might be an issue for publishing houses that wish to modify the standard word xml schema in-house. It also applies only to word files, not to powerpoint or xcel files.

The suit was brought in East Texas, said to be happy hunting grounds for patent trolls; and if it’s true that the east Texas federal court is more favorably inclined toward plaintiffs, Microsoft would find its chances improved on the appellate level. It does seem curious that a Canadian company would file suit against a Washington-state corporation in Texas, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I don’t think this is anything for any of us to worry about, except to lament the lamentable state of patents and ‘intellectual property’ in general in the USA today.

]]> By: Steve Jordan http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/e-book-fallout-from-xml-related-ruling-judge-said-to-ban-microsoft-for-selling-word-in-the-us/comment-page-1/#comment-1123368 Steve Jordan Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:38:44 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/08/12/e-book-fallout-from-xml-related-ruling-judge-said-to-ban-microsoft-for-selling-word-in-the-us/#comment-1123368 Since there are other tools to take word processed content... even Word content... into various e-book formats (in fact, anyone who works from actual Word XML may be officially certifiable), this isn't likely to impact the e-book industry directly. There may be other tools that could suffer the same fate as MS Word. But that's assuming MS, with its resources and the support of virtually the entire U.S. business world, including the Federal government, loses this court fight to a little-known Toronto-based company. Does anyone really think that's going to happen? Does that mean I'm rooting for MS? No: If they violated a patent, they should be held accountable, even if that means forcing them to rebuild Word from scratch (remember, none of us has to buy it). That might allow other players to gain market share with non-violating software, and I'm always in favor of competition. Since there are other tools to take word processed content… even Word content… into various e-book formats (in fact, anyone who works from actual Word XML may be officially certifiable), this isn’t likely to impact the e-book industry directly. There may be other tools that could suffer the same fate as MS Word.

But that’s assuming MS, with its resources and the support of virtually the entire U.S. business world, including the Federal government, loses this court fight to a little-known Toronto-based company. Does anyone really think that’s going to happen?

Does that mean I’m rooting for MS? No: If they violated a patent, they should be held accountable, even if that means forcing them to rebuild Word from scratch (remember, none of us has to buy it). That might allow other players to gain market share with non-violating software, and I’m always in favor of competition.

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