[Gllug] Microsoft announces deals with Lynux !

[Richard Jones]

On Sat, Nov 04, 2006 at 11:22:47AM +0000, Richard Jones wrote:
> Read Microsoft's "Convenant not to sue"
> http://www.microsoft.com/office/xml/covenant.mspx .

And compare it to Adobe's royalty-free license for you to implement
PDF (provided you don't deviate from the PDF standard):

http://www.ietf.org/ietf/IPR/adobe-ipr-draft-zilles-pdf.txt

Notice how Adobe quote the actual patent numbers which they claim
cover PDF:

  <quote>
      Accordingly, the following patents are licensed on a royalty-free,
      non-exclusive basis for the term of each patent and for the sole
      purpose of developing software that produces, consumes, and
      interprets PDF files that are compliant with the Specification:

      U.S. Patent Numbers:

        * 5,634,064
        * 5,737,599
        * 5,781,785
        * 5,819,301
        * 6,028,583
        * 6,289,364
        * 6,421,460
  </quote>

I'm not saying that these patents are valid or even cover PDF, but
heck at least I can go and look them up and decide for myself.

Nowhere are Microsoft saying what patents cover OpenXML or Mono.  I
suspect they don't have any, or they do but they know they are weak
patents and don't want them to be challenged yet.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, CTO Merjis Ltd.
Merjis - web marketing and technology - http://merjis.com
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