By Ingrid Marson, 27 May 2005 09:20
NEWS Software developers are angry that Microsoft has been granted a patent for the conversion of objects into XML files.
The patent, which was granted by the US patent office on Tuesday, is for XML serialisation and deserialisation - the conversion of a programming object into an XML file and vice versa.
XML, an open standard developed by the W3C, is commonly used for representing data structures in applications that exchange data. As applications will often need to convert between programming objects and XML files, this patent could cover virtually any application that uses XML to transfer data.
Wookey, a developer on the free Linux distribution Debian, said the patent should not have been granted and could be used by Microsoft to discourage competition.
"It's an abomination to anyone who does programming that the concept of every possible way of converting between a programming object and an XML file (and vice versa) can be owned by one company," said Wookey. "Should someone else want to save a programming object in the form of an XML file, Microsoft can now charge them for the privilege or simply refuse them permission to do it at all in the US."
Michael Tortolano, a senior software manager at Home Media Networks, agreed that the patent should not have been granted.
"Interoperability is the life blood of the computer industry yet we keep seeing software patents being granted which directly threaten the ability of computers to do their basic job, to share and manipulate data," said Tortolano.
Microsoft had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.
Although such a patent is less likely to be granted in Europe, which has a less liberal patent system than the US, there are concerns that this could change if the European software patent directive is adopted by the European parliament. Opponents of this directive, which is due for a final vote in the summer, claim that it will lead to the widespread patenting of software in Europe.
A spokesman for the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure said that data conversion patents have already been granted by the European Patent Office (EPO); for example, SAP was granted such a patent last year. This patent, EP1267277, is described as a method for "modifying the data structure used by an application program to access database systems in a computer system".
"This [Microsoft patent] once more shows that the practice of the US and European Patent Offices is quite similar," he said. "It is clear that by codifying this EPO practice in a directive as the [European] Commission and Council want to do, they will only make this sort of US-style patents enforceable in Europe as well."
The Microsoft patent that developers are concerned about is patent number 6,898,604 , which was filed in June 2001.
Ingrid Marson writes for ZDNET UK
Comments
There are 8 comments. Join the discussion
1. Geoffrey Darnton
...just ignore it ..... eventually the stupidity of many software and business process patents will come home to roost! I bet many are highly opportunistic with a real aura of "let's see if we can get away with it" behind many applications ... and in any case, presumably a lot of people have already been doing this, so there's a lot of prior art around ....
2. anonymous
Yeah right.
But the problem is that even being takne to court by a software giant like Microsoft over an obviously "silly" and "oportunistic" pattent is nothing to joke about if you are the one being taken to court.
It is quite costly to defend againts a patent suite and the process can take a long long time.
3. John Carlson
Guess we'll have to use Lisp/Scheme s-expressions. Or save the data in C++ or Java declarations, and use data interpreters.
4. Gheodreh Alexey
Whay dosen't Microsoft patent Linux too ?
5. anonymous
How can they patent something that everyone knows was developed by other people?
6. Dal
Yeah sure but be careful. Patents are intended to foster and protect innovation. In this case, Microsoft's intent is clearly to upset OpenOffice and gain control over open source software as a brand. The public is not served by such tactics.
The open source community should do more branding and advertising to the general public.
7. Ian Savell
Bully-boy tactics again
Microsoft know that no small software company or open-source organisation could ever afford to overturn this patent in the courts. If you can't overturn it, you have to abide by it, otherwise its a crime.
The time to oppose patents is during examination when the applicant and the state are paying the costs. Doubtless Microsoft gave this application a really obscure name and synopsis to make sure no-one got to hear about it until it was granted by the pusillanimous US patent examiners.
Lets face it, the whole patent and copyright system acts against the interests of citizens in a modern society and needs to be radically overhauled.
8. anonymous
Does anyone know the full postal address of the US Patent Office?
I know it ends "Redmond CA"...