Bonum Certa Men Certa

XML Patents, Microsoft Aggression, and ODF Hostility

msodf



Summary: Microsoft's threat to XML, hostility towards ODF, and other news of interest

THE recent i4i case [1, 2] had Microsoft essentially fined $200,000,000. The nature of their patent was particularly curious because it was editing of XML. This is a reason for concern for the following reason.

Wait, Editing An XML Document Is Patented And Worth $98 Per Application?



A bunch of folks sent in variations on the story about Microsoft losing a patent infringement lawsuit to the tune of $200 million to a small Toronto firm (the ruling also came right on the heals of another ruling against Microsoft in a patent case, for $388 million).


Microsoft has it share of XML patents too and as this pro-Microsoft blogger insinuates, Microsoft is in the mood for abuse of software patents.

Burning the Ships provides insight into Microsoft's recent IP moves from an insider's perspective, but the company's newfound desire to share doesn't seem like all good news for the tech industry. The question isn't whether there should be IP rights, but whether current law strikes the right balance. I have concerns that it doesn't.


The book this blogger refers to is patent propaganda.

Looking elsewhere for some ODF news, will ODF become a national standard in Indonesia sooner rather than later?

Last year, i wrote about When Will Indonesia Use ODF? Up to now, we still don't have any standard for document format. Do you think .doc or .docx is a standard? Well, think again, as it's not an official standard in Indonesia as it hasn't been approved by the National Standarization Agency of Indonesia. As a de factor standard yes, not not by de jure.


Jason Brooks is still somewhat skeptic when it comes to Microsoft's relationship with ODF, which keeps moving forward.

The state of file format compatibility across a range of different applications has come a long way in the past few years, as vendors such as Microsoft and OpenOffice.org have made progress toward addressing file format compatibility.


Wouter van Vugt was accused by some people of being an agent of Microsoft. Despite many of yesterday's ODF-hostile remarks from him in Twitter, he denies having a direct relationship when he writes:

Lol. Paid by Microsoft. NOT! I am payed by my customers, in both the corporate world and in government.


There is more than just direct relationships to consider. The ODF Foundation is a good example of this [1, 2] and nonetheless, its president keeps receiving some attention with which to promote the whole "CDF" malarkey (or equivalents).

Gary Edwards, a Web developer and former president of the OpenDocument Foundation, told me Wave means “the greater web of designers can be designing a new type of document — one that’s multidimensional, highly graphical, highly interactive, and not OS-specific or device specific.”

The implication, Edwards told me, is that Wave is the thin edge of the wedge — or the thin edge of the Web — that could crack Microsoft’s dominance on the desktop. “Once they lose the document model, they might have lost it all,” he said.


Thus the fear of Google, for example.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

The FSF Board and FSF Beard
So the FSF's Board has grown
Law Firms Facing the Consequences for Patently Abusive Litigation on Behalf of Microsoft Employees Who Got Arrested for Strangulation and Had Done Even Worse Things
Having spent 1.5 years bullying me with patronising letters on behalf of Microsofters, last week they got served a massive bill and, in effect, lost the Hearing
LLMs Breaking Everything
Computing and the Net became a playground for scammers and "bros", like people who "invented" fake currencies and also try to tell us that LLMs spewing out things will have some real value
 
Links 22/06/2025: Giving Up on Smartphones and 'Jaws' at 50
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/06/2025: Furniture Construction and Bubble for Comments
Links for the day
Links 22/06/2025: Windows TCO Tales and YouTube Getting More Hostile to Users
Links for the day
New Report From the EPO's Staff Representatives in The Hague (LSCTH) Reveals Many Unsolved Issues
Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH) wrote to staff just before the weekend
Links 22/06/2025: More Slop Lawsuits (Copyrights) and "America’s Oligarch Problem"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/06/2025: Gigantic Toolchest and Annoying Bots
Links for the day
The Calling
Persist and persevere, justice will come your way
So Far Every BetaNews 'Article' is LLM Slop, So BetaNews is Officially Just a Slopfarm
They just don't seem to value what they have
IBM Rumour: Mass Layoffs (RAs) Lists Being Made for Consulting, With Effect in July 2025
Bogus companies with no viable products and no world-leading (in their field) staff are doomed to perish
Links 21/06/2025: Data Breach With 16 Billion Passwords, Dutch Government Recommends Children Under 15 Stay off TikTok and Instagram
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/06/2025: Notes about Typst (and LaTeX) and Opos
Links for the day
Microsoft's Competition Tactics: Sabotage GNU/Linux Installs, Block Chrome
Edge is dying
1989: Free Software as "Open" Software (OSI Didn't Coin "Open Source", It Also Predates Linux)
"One man's fight for Free software"
The Microsoft OOXML Modus Operandi: Throw 1,000 Pages of Other People's Work for a Judge to Read Ahead of a One-Hour Meeting
No time to discuss this - that's the point
Formalities Officers (FOs) at the EPO Are in Trouble, Reveals Internal Report
We already know, based on an HR pattern we saw at IBM and elsewhere, that reallocating roles can be prerequisite for dismissal and those who do so expect many to resign anyway
The Web is Slop and FUD, Let's Go to Gemini Protocol
Lupa sees self-signed capsules at 92.4%
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 20, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 20, 2025
Links 21/06/2025: Phone Bans for Concerts, Tensions in Taiwan Strait
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/06/2025: Spoilers, Public Yggdrasil Node, Changes to AuraGem Search
Links for the day
"Six years of Gemini!"
From gemini://geminiprotocol.net
Gemini Links 20/06/2025: Summer Updates and Hardware Failures
Links for the day
Links 20/06/2025: Google Shareholder Sues Google and Google Sued for Defamatory Slop ('Hey Hi') Word Salads ('Summaries')
Links for the day
Linux Journal Might Have Become the Latest Slopfarm Targeting "Linux", the Trends Are Concerning for Dying News Sites
They tarnish the Web with junk and then die
On "Learning to Code"
quality may suffer, plus things get bloated
Quick Points Regarding This Week's Court Hearing
it paves the way for us to squash all the SLAPPs from Microsofters
Common Mistake: Believing Social Control Media Will Document Your Writings/Thoughts and Search Engines Like Google Will Help You Find These
Many news sites wrongly assumed that posting directly to Twitter would be acceptable
The Manchester Bees and This Hot Summer
We have had a fantastic week so far this week
Gemini Protocol Enters Its Seventh Year, Growth Has Accelerated!
Maybe in June 20 2026 there will be over 3,500 active capsules?
Mastodon and the Fediverse Have an Issue: Liability for Content (Even in Other Instances) and Costs
self-hosting is the only logical path forward
Why Microsoft and Its 'Hey Hi' (Slop) Frenzy Fail While Sinking in Deep, Growing Debt
Right now, like Twitter around the time it was sold to MElon, "open" "hey hi" is a big pile of debt with a lot to pay for that debt (interest payments)
Europe is Leaving Microsoft, the Press Coverage Isn't Sufficiently Helpful
The news is generally positive, but the press coverage leaves so much to be desired
Slopwatch: Linuxsecurity, BetaNews, and Linux Journal
slippery slope
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 19, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/06/2025: Gemini Protocol Turns 6!
Links for the day