"We reserve the right to sue our #1 rival. Sheesh!"

Yes, Microsoft cannot help denying the existence and role of its #1 rival. Microsoft is trying to sell people the illusion that use and implementation of OOXML is safe from Microsoft lawsuits, but this excludes FOSS, as well as patent trolls, proxies. Microsoft also gives the illusion that OOXML is complete, which it is not. Another clarification comes from Bob Sutor.

OOXML IPR problems

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Anyway, the phrase that caught my eye last night in one of the presentations I was sent was “No IPR problems!”.

I immediately thought “That should have an asterisk.” As in:

“No IPR problems!*”

* If you don’t care about 1) everything you need to use the spec, or 2) are interested in using free software.

The question can be expanded to add: Why have software patents in the first place, let alone ones covering what strives to become a standard? This is insane and this new short article [via Andy Updegrove] says more about the negative effect on research and development.

We find that the patent system discourages investment in innovation by the average publicly traded American firm. Although the patent system provides positive incentives in some industries like pharmaceuticals, it provides negative incentives in most industries. Further, the performance has deteriorated over time.

Enough has been said about why software patents are harmful. Why must the whole world suffer from a class of patents which is only applicable in a handful of countries? There is no place for such patents in anything international. And to 'punish' FLOSS using false promises may be grounds to antitrust violation. Microsoft has lied about this for many months. ⬆

"I saw that internally inside Microsoft many times when I was told to stay away from supporting Mono in public. They reserve the right to sue"

--Robert Scoble, former Microsoft evangelist