A software patent granted to Microsoft in the US has been labelled an 'abomination'.
Software developers are angry that Microsoft has been granted a patent for the conversion of objects into XML files.
The patent, which was granted by the US patent office on Tuesday, is for XML serialisation and deserialisation the conversion of a programming object into an XML file and vice versa.
XML, an open standard developed by the W3C, is commonly used for representing data structures in applications that exchange data. As applications will often need to convert between programming objects and XML files, this patent could cover virtually any application that uses XML to transfer data.
Wookey, a developer on the free Linux distribution Debian, said the patent should not have been granted and could be used by Microsoft to discourage competition.
"It's an abomination to anyone who does programming that the concept of every possible way of converting between a programming object and an XML file (and vice versa) can be owned by one company," said Wookey to ZDNet UK. "Should someone else want to save a programming object in the form of an XML file, Microsoft can now charge them for the privilege or simply refuse them permission to do it at all in the US."
Michael Tortolano, a senior software manager at Home Media Networks, agreed that the patent should not have been granted.
"Interoperability is the life blood of the computer industry yet we keep seeing software patents being granted which directly threaten the ability of computers to their basic job, to share and manipulate data," said Tortolano.
Microsoft had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.
Although such a patent is less likely to be granted in Europe, which has a less liberal patent system than the US, there are concerns that this could change if the European software patent directive is adopted by the European Parliament. Opponents of this directive, which is due for a final vote in the summer, claim that it will lead to the widespread patenting of software in Europe.
Jonas Maebe, a spokesman for the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, said that data conversion patents have already been granted by the European Patent Office (EPO), for example, SAP was granted such a patent last year. This patent,
EP1267277, is described as a method for "modifying the data structure used by an application program to access database systems in a computer system".
"This [Microsoft patent] once more shows that the practice of the US and European Patent Offices is quite similar," said Maebe. "It is clear that by codifying this EPO practice in a directive as the [European] Commission and Council want to do, they will only make this sort of US-style patents enforceable in Europe as well."
The Microsoft patent that developers are concerned about is patent number
6,898,604 , which was filed in June 2001.
Later:
News > Software > Applications
Friday 27th May 2005
Microsoft defends its patents
Ingrid Marson
ZDNet UK
May 27, 2005, 13:50 BST
Tell us your opinion
The software giant claims its innovations are 'among the most significant across any industry', after the award of a patent for XML serialisation sparked anger
Microsoft defended its patent portfolio on Friday in the face of criticism for a recently granted patent for the conversion of objects into XML files.
The patent, which was granted by the US patent office on Tuesday, is for XML serialisation and deserialisation the conversion of a programming object into an XML file and vice versa. It was criticised by software developers as it is a basic programming concept that is essential for applications using XML to share data.
But Microsoft denied that any of its patents are of low quality and claimed that its patents have been praised in research studies.
"As a result of our industry leading commitment to research and development, Microsoft maintains thousands of patents," said the spokesperson. "Studies routinely rank our innovations among the most significant across any industry. A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003, which provided an overall assessment of Microsofts intellectual property, found that Microsoft continues to develop relevant patents and gave us one of the highest scores on the list of technology companies in that category."
Microsoft did not provide more details on the MIT report, and didn't say why it believes the XML patent is innovative.
Various ZDNet UK readers were angered by the news that Microsoft had been granted a patent for XML serialisation. One reader pointed out that Microsoft should not have been allowed this patent as it is obvious.
"XML was born as a particular format for data storage. A programming object is made up of data. Where is the patentable 'innovation' in using XML for the purpose it's born for?" said one reader.
Software developer Roderick Klein laid the blame at the door of the US patent office. "It just seems people who review patents at patent offices seem to have no skill sets at all when it comes to IT... when you see the incredible amount of crap that gets approved," said Klein.
The US patent office was unable to comment in time for this article.
And yet again
Following a problem in IE with XML rendering after Netscape 8 has been installed, Microsoft is advising users to uninstall Netscape
Microsoft has alerted users that Netscape's latest browser appears to break the XML rendering capabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Dave Massy, a senior programme manager for IE, warned users in a blog posting that after installing Netscape 8, IE will render XML files as a blank page, including XML files that have an XSLT transformation.
Microsoft did not make clear what versions of IE were affected, but a user of the DeveloperDex forum said he experienced the problem on version 6 of IE, which had been patched with Windows Service Pack 2. The forum user, known as cybarber, said this issue has put him off using Netscape.
"This is really really bad," said cybarber in the posting. "Netscape was dead and now I will bury it so deep it will never surface. Internet Explorer (7?) is all I need."
Microsoft said it was investigating the problem and will work with Netscape to resolve it. It advised a "work around" of uninstalling Netscape 8 and editing the registry settings.
One reader of the blog said the rendering problem could be a problem with IE, rather than Netscape. He suggested that such a feature could be useful for Microsoft as it would deter users considering a migration from IE to Netscape.
"I really don't want to sound cynical, sarcastic or satirical, but that is one hell of a way to prevent users from switching to another browser. Are you guys absolutely sure it's a conflict with IE?" said the reader, called Tony.
But another reader, Chris Beach, came to Microsoft's defence. "Cue endless conspiracy theories about Microsoft's 'dirty tactics'. Honestly, the rubbish you [Microsoft] have to put up with
my heart goes out to you guys. Keep up the good work with IE7," said Beach.
This issue will be another blow to Netscape, which released Netscape 8 only two weeks ago. Only a day after launching Netscape 8 and touting the browser's security features, the company released an update to fix several serious security flaws.
I wonder if the DOJ would consider this as an attempt to monopolize more.....
