Software Patents

Patents on software... what do people think?

Microsoft (not too long ago) just had the following patent approved by IPONZ:
"Word-processing document stored in a single XML file that may be manipulated by applications that understand XML"

The full details of this patent are just as vague and obvious as the title.

Richard Stallman (founder of GNU) said:
"Supposedly, in order to be patented, something has to be new, useful and unobvious. That is the language used in the US. I think other countries have different language which is pretty much equivalent to it. Of course, when the patent office gets into the game, they start interpreting new and unobvious. New turns out to mean we don't have it in our files and unobvious tends to mean unobvious to someone with an IQ of 50."

Mark Martin, a representative of Microsoft said:
"While the XML standard itself is royalty free, nothing precludes a company from seeking patent protection for a specific software implementation that incorporates elements of XML"


Now, tell me Mark Martin, what is specific about the patent? What is so unobvious and new about it that it is patentable? O machi kudasai... XML is as old as a donkey. Microsoft reckon nobody has bothered to try and use XML to mark up some text?! So off they go to the patent office. What an absurd claim.


Patents are for protecting new ideas, not for protecting the development of a business. What I can't believe is that only the New Zealand patent office was stupid enough to accept the application. The New Zealand Open Source Society failed to overturn it.

If only the New Zealand patent office accepted it, then it's only patented in New Zealand, surely.

Originally posted by Siskin
If only the New Zealand patent office accepted it, then it's only patented in New Zealand, surely.