News of Microsoft’s move to file XML-related patents in Europe and New Zealand is being seen in some quarters as an attempt by the Redmond, Washington-based software company to erect barriers to competitors seeking greater compatibility with the company’s market-dominating office suite. “When Microsoft added an XML format to Word, suddenly Word’s format got technically a lot easier to reverse engineer,” Rob Helm, director of research for Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm in Kirkland, Washington, told TechNewsWorld.
The problem here isn't what will happen if MS fails to get the patent (which might be quite a good thing) but what will happen if they do. Will we see a whole slew of file-format patents being used to prevent interop to other packages, to protect MS's dwindling monopoly pool?
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Microsoft Files for XML Patents
Posted by: John P. Mello Jr. January 27, 2004 08:05 AMNews of Microsoft’s move to file XML-related patents in Europe and New Zealand is being seen in some quarters as an attempt by the Redmond, Washington-based software company to erect barriers to competitors seeking greater compatibility with the company’s market-dominating office suite. “When Microsoft added an XML format to Word, suddenly Word’s format got technically a lot easier to reverse engineer,” Rob Helm, director of research for Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm in Kirkland, Washington, told TechNewsWorld.