Related (USPTO angle): USPTO Rewards Microsoft for Corruption at ISO by Teaching People Proprietary OOXML and Promoting Its Use | USPTO Craziness: Changing Rules to Punish PTAB Petitioners and Reward Microsoft for Corruption at ISO | Conflict of Interest: Microsoft and IBM Controlling the USPTO and Leaving GNU/Linux Users Shut Out (in the Cold) | Why Wouldn't an Office That Grants Monopolies Support Microsoft Monopoly? | USPTO Promotes Microsoft Monopoly and Proprietary Software (Updatedx2) | David Kappos (IBM/Microsoft Lobbyist) Reported for Misuse of Authority and Conflict of Interest

The corrupt typically attracts the corrupt and protects the corrupt

Summary: The World Intellectual Property [sic] Organization -- like the EPO (where António Campinos outsourced IT systems to Microsoft) -- is choosing the most notorious/corrupt 'tech' 'company' (cult) instead of open standards and, as the links above show, this is nowadays done inside the United States and outside the United States as well, raising legal questions/ire

OVER a decade ago we wrote many hundreds of posts about corruption of Microsoft in the document formats dispute. Instead of accepting and adopting open standards Microsoft decided and insisted on openwashing its proprietary formats, which basically correspond just to Microsoft's proprietary Office. The specifications contained not only Microsoft's product name but also many versions of it. Retrofitting something proprietary -- with binary enclosures! -- into XML and then calling it "open" was an early example of the Open Source brand rotting to death. To quote Microsoft's Jason Matusow, an integral part of the 'Open' XML corruption (further background in [1, 2, 3]): "More Open Than Open [...] I am constantly amazed at the flexibility of this single word.”

Yes, it had already become almost meaningless when he wrote this (around the time we coined the term "openwashing").

Anyway, here we are more than a decade later and the corruption of Microsoft paid off. Agencies around the world shamelessly promote Microsoft's proprietary formats as a de facto standard, as a default, and moreover financially penalise people who refuse to (or cannot) use Microsoft's proprietary formats.

"...here we are more than a decade later and the corruption of Microsoft paid off."Bar complaints against David Kappos notwithstanding (links above, still ongoing), we recently learned that WIPO is also rotten in the sense that it promotes Microsoft and discriminates against Microsoft's rivals. "The USPTO has been bombarding me with E-mails about DOCX," a reader has told us. "Just got one from the WIPO." (It says "ePCT-Filing in Docx")

To quote:

Dear ePCT user,

You are invited to join our next ePCT webinars on ePCT-Filing in Docx.

In these sessions you will discover the advantages of using Docx and you will be guided through the different steps on how to create a Docx specification to be uploaded in ePCT for receiving Offices accepting Docx.

Two sessions with the same topic and content will be provided to cover different time zones and are free of charge.

-Tuesday 05 October 2021: 09-10:30 am Geneva Time (CET) for Asia, Europe time zones, etc.

Registration link: https://wipo-int.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-7j8UAt7QGiD7MHavzxwCg

-Thursday 07 October 2021: 4:30-6:00 pm Geneva Time (CET) for North and South America time zones, etc.

Registration link: https://wipo-int.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KH8E-RyYTOGtIl1sVzhUpw

The PowerPoint slides are already available for download at https://www.wipo.int/pct/en/seminar/webinars/index.html under ePCT-Filing in Docx.

The two webinars will be recorded and made available on the PCT Webinars web page https://www.wipo.int/pct/en/seminar/webinars/index.html.

If you require further details, please contact pct.eservices@wipo.int

Best regards,

PCT Operations Customer Support Section

So are they trying to train people for Microsoft? Is this even legal? Well, WIPO is immune and cannot be sued. It's like the EPO. It would be interesting to know who exactly was behind this decision and what was behind it. As we've seen countless times before, Microsoft does not play by the rules -- it bribes, cheats, infiltrates, blackmails, and worse. ⬆

"Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect."

--Linus Torvalds