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Microsoft Applies to Patent RSS in Vista

Posted by Zonk on from the don't-jump-the-rails-just-yet dept.

Cyvros wrote in with a link to Wired's Monkey Bites blog, which is featuring a post on Microsoft applying for a patent on RSS. As the article points out, this isn't as crazy as it seems at first blush. From the wording of the application, post author Scott Gilbertson interprets their move as a patent on RSS only within Vista and IE7. From the article: "The big mystery is what Microsoft is planning to do with the patents if they are awarded them. The sad state of patent affairs in the United States has led to several cases of Microsoft being sued for technologies they did arguably invent simply because some else owned a generic patent on them. Of course we have no way of knowing how Microsoft intends to use these patents if they are awarded them. They could represent a defensive move, but they could be offensive as well -- [self-described RSS inventor Dave] Winer may end up being correct. It would be nice to see Microsoft release some information on what they plan to do with these patents, but for now we'll just have to wait and see whether the US Patent and Trademark Office grants them."

15 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Wheel by aedan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Patent on the wheel can't be long in coming.

    1. Re:Wheel by troll+-1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You might find this interesting.

    2. Re:Wheel by jinxidoru · · Score: 5, Funny

      Patent on the wheel can't be long in coming.

      That would save the trouble of having to re-invent it.

  2. Winer claims to have invented RSS.... by topham · · Score: 4, Funny

    and nobody has bothered to dispute it because who the hell would want to claim such a convoluted design as their own?

  3. Aw, but... but..... by radarsat1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Everyone was so *happy* when they decided to actually play nice and use an established icon for RSS.

    Why would they turn around and piss everyone off?
    WHY??

    Oh wait... it's MS. Nevermind. Business as usual.

    so hey.. does this mean Firefox will have to exclude that feature in upcoming Vista builds?

    I can see it now:

    #ifndef _MS_VISTA_ // patent crap.
    Links.AddLiveBookmark();
    #endif

  4. Oh Yeah?! by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well I'm going to patent the 8.3 naming convention in the FAT filesystem! How do you like THEM apples?

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Oh Yeah?! by leeosenton · · Score: 5, Funny

      but them Apples don't even use 8.3 file names...

  5. Who has Microsoft actually sued by Timesprout · · Score: 4, Interesting

    over patent infringement? Actual cases and not the 'OMG they might sue us' screeching please.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
    1. Re:Who has Microsoft actually sued by thue · · Score: 4, Informative

      Here is one, on the ASF video file format: http://www.advogato.org/article/101.html

    2. Re:Who has Microsoft actually sued by dattaway · · Score: 4, Informative

      Who would they sue? I believe everyone they could. IBM used to covertly sue everyone trying to manufacture a competing Personal Computer. They would quietly visit the company with their lawyers and ask them for royalties on several patents. If they balked, they informed them there were several thousand patents they could litigate with. Of course a deal was made and it was all NDA. Most of the companies slowly bled to death. These things rarely make the news.

    3. Re:Who has Microsoft actually sued by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Who has N. Korea actually nuked? Actual cases and not the 'OMG they might nuke us' screeching please.

  6. Patents are Never Defensive by jmcharry · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you want only to defend your right to use something patentable, you just publish in a journal held by a number of libraries. IBM's Invention Disclosure Bulletin is an example of this. They publish everything they think might be patentable, but not worth the time and expense to patent.

  7. That is not patent for RSS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I quick read the application through. It is more about a system that aggregates RSS content further to other applications. Think of refactoring your RSS reading application into background daemon and sending the content via D-Bus to all subscribers. Something like that but it is definitely NOT a patent application for RSS itself, the main article is ignorant and written by someone really stupid.

    I'd mod the main article as -1: Troll if I could. It's just anti-microsoft FUD.

  8. They aren't patenting RSS by adwb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems to me after reading the patent application that they are trying to patent the API they created for allowing different programs within Vista (IE7, Outlook, etc) all share the same collection of feeds in various formats.

  9. not Vista/IE7-specific by oohshiny · · Score: 4, Informative

    Second of all, from my reading anyway, Microsoft is not patenting RSS, but RSS within Vista/IE7. Of course I'm not a patent lawyer, I could be wrong about that.

    You couldn't patent "RSS within Vista/IE7" if you tried. This patent looks like it's trying to cover broadly RSS syndication, RSS aggregation, RSS feed conversion, and object-oriented libraries for working with RSS feeds. The fact that it's beating around the bush and not patenting the RSS format itself is simply patent strategy: Microsoft's lawyers are trying to "build a fence" around RSS, leaving the open core open, but patenting everything around it so that you can't use RSS without infringing on their patents.

    Make no mistake: if this patent gets granted, most RSS software will be infringing.