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Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 6:20 pm
by Malcolm
What the fuck? I'm betting $20 this gets overturned.
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 7:00 pm
by Troy
Did I read correctly that the ruling says "Open source formats can be copyrighted"?
Wait... what.
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 8:25 pm
by TPRJones
No, the patent is from 1994, before those particular formats came to be. While it seems absurd on the face of it, there may actually be some merit to i4i's case. Must read more.
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:05 pm
by TPRJones
Hmmmm ... so essentially they patented the use of SGML (and thus XML) as an integral part of a document editing package. I'm not sure that there's programs doing that prior to the 1994 patent. If one can be found it would invalidate the patent, I think.
The patent is actually a bit more generic, covering any method of keeping text and formatting separate in a documenting editing program. Given the prior existence of SGML for nearly 20 years, even if no one had done this before I'm not really sure it counts as "non-obvious".
Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 4:36 pm
by Malcolm