W3C to support MS after lost internet patent lawsuit

[dZeus]

http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/3100891

After MS lost a lawsuit about it, lots of other companies might follow if patent won't be reversed.

[Wombat]

I don't think this patent should be reversed. From what I've learned, he had the patent long ago, and actually showed it to MS, who said, "Thanks, but we don't need that."

The patent should be enforced. It's the system that needs changing. Usually it's the big guys using them to bully people around, and that needs to stop too.

No, other companies won't follow. The guy who owns this patent says that he's only interested in going after MS.

[dZeus]

Why is that? Did Bill Gates kill his babies?

[agallag]

Unfortunately for him, there is a fair bit of prior art that people are digging up. One of the best examples so far is Lotus Notes v3.0, on windows 3.11, was able to embed excel documents into pages that were stored on a server, and displayed on a client. The technique matches the wording of the patent quite closely, and it was all available at least 6 months before the patent was filed.

[Gurm]

C'mon. It was available, and publicly demonstrated, YEARS before his patent was filed, in a variety of places. Although Lotus has lots and lots of documentation to prove it, so I guess that helps.

The patent SHOULD be overturned. Maybe Microsoft said "no thanks" because it was already publicly available technology. Ever think of that?

- Gurm

[Wombat]

I find it <B>very</B> hard to believe that MicroSoft, whose only "cutting edge" is litigation, simply missed some prior art somewhere. They challenged the patent and lost.

[Drizzt]

When did this patent was requested?
It's been centuries that it's possible to incorporate other files/programs into a document...I have a copy of the first MS Office (the 8 bit one) that allowed that...

[Gurm]

Drizzt - that's EXACTLY my point. The wording of this patent is SUPER-vague.

The way it was presented to the courts was extremely unfavorable for anyone except the guy who won. It's too bad. I could probably convince these courts to give me a patent on the wheel. Or maybe fire.

- Gurm

[dZeus]

Jeez, if MS loses in court of course it's because MS is evil and deserves to lose!

[Gurm]

Oh c'mon.

So what you're saying is that if someone sued Microsoft in court over using more than 256 colors... because they have a vaguely worded patent about "lots of colors", Microsoft deserves to lose?

There's a difference between thinking that MS is an evil empire, and thinking that somehow, they deserve to be made to pay in all kinds of unfair and illegal ways.

[dZeus]

Originally posted by Gurm
Oh c'mon.

So what you're saying is that if someone sued Microsoft in court over using more than 256 colors... because they have a vaguely worded patent about "lots of colors", Microsoft deserves to lose?

There's a difference between thinking that MS is an evil empire, and thinking that somehow, they deserve to be made to pay in all kinds of unfair and illegal ways.

My point exactly

[Gurm]

Oh, you were using sarcasm. Sorry, I missed that.

[leech]

Looks like more people will start switching to Mozilla or Opera or any number of other browsers. They are all more standards compliant anyhow. I see nothing wrong with this. I am not quite sure why the W3C is so against this, of course assuming the guy keeps his word and ONLY goes after Microsoft/IE, then it could come down to people using actual standards for creating their websites, so we don't have this "Works only in IE" bullcrap.

Leech

[Technoid]

mayby, cause all other browsers also have plugins in the same way as IE?

And you never know when the guy gets another load of Hybris and starts to go after other companies than MS

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Technoid
mayby, cause all other browsers also have plugins in the same way as IE?

And you never know when the guy gets another load of Hybris and starts to go after other companies than MS

I don't think this guy will. It's him going after MS. Kind of appropriate, the way they bludgeon other people with patents even worse than his.