Microsoft Receives XML Patent

gsfprez writes "Well, i'm no patent lawyer, but if I'm reading this right, it seems that the basics of XML are being patented by Microsoft. If not the files themselves - at least what most of us would do with XML files. From the abstract: 'Systems, methods and data structures for encompassing scripts written in one or more scripting languages in a single file.' That smacks of what my config files do on my G5 for my G5, if you read it with a biased eye." We noted this was happening earlier, and now it's finally come to pass. While the patent does sound a bit dubious, a Microsoft spokesman was quick to deny that they'd be so bold as to patent XML itself.

Comments

Microsoft has never used a patent offensively

[ObviousGuy]

They are typically the target of dubious patent lawsuits, actually.

If anything, I'd imagine that this was more defensive than anything else.

Re:Microsoft has never used a patent offensively

[MrRTFM]

That's not the point. All the big companies are safe from each others patent suits because each of them use technology from the others patents portfolio's.

The problem is that if they wanted to, they really could crush all new and small companies like a bug.

I can only really see 3 outcomes:
1. Software Patents become irrelevant and therefore useless (HA!)
2. The big companies keep newcomers out with lawsuits
3. They keep collecting patents but never use them, and small companies live in fear that at any stage they can be crushed.

Its so ridiculous its almost funny.

What's actually being patented

[vruba]

From skimming the patent, it looks like they're patenting something vaguely like this:

<versions>
<version language='perl' interpreter='/usr/bin/perl'>
print("I am a banana!\n");
</version>
<version language='python' interpreter='/usr/bin/python'>
print 'I am a banana!'
</version>
</versions>

... in other words, using XML to keep several languages' versions of one script.

I don't really see the point. There are plenty of extremely portable languages, and what happens if the versions in the XML file fall out of synch? If someone edits the perl version but not the python version, you could be in trouble. Writing a non-trivial algorithm that works exactly the same in two completely different languages (if they weren't completely different, you wouldn't need to drag them both around) seems like more work than just using a portable language in the first place. I suppose it could be useful for keeping scripts across incompatible language versions -- you could have one script for $language v1 though v2.5, and one for all later versions.

Still, if I were using XML to make my code portable, I'd use Flare or something very much like it. Maybe I'm missing the point, but I think this patent is pretty weird.

Re:Maybe so, still trivial...

[Jester99]

Any competent programmer could come up with a method for doing the same thing in a few hours.

I already do it! HTML is XML compliant, no? Well, in my HTML documents, I have this tendency to put these little tags, like, <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT"> (some code in *gasp* the JavaScript scripting language...) </SCRIPT>

And though I don't personally use it, I have seen
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT"> (some code in *gasp* the VBScript scripting language...) </SCRIPT>

Isn't that what they just described in this patent? *scratches head*