[CLUE-Talk] ms patenting xml ??

[Matthew Porter]

On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 10:12:44PM -0700, Jed S. Baer wrote:

<clip>
> Whether it's a problem for other programs (not just FOSS) which read/write
> files in those formats? I'd guess a "clean-room" defense would be what
> would happen. Whether, for example, OpenOffice could afford the
> litigation, it's hard to say. One can imagine Sun stepping up to the plate
> for them. But other projects, I dunno.
>

A "Clean-room" procedure can help to avoid copyright
infringement, but it doesn't work for patents.  A valid
patent provides exclusivity for the covered inventions even if the
infringer developed his technology completely independently.

 --Matt.

 ----------
 Matthew F. Porter
 Littleton, Colorado

 mfporter at c-creature.com