Microsoft says it doesn't want to own RSS

Author: Brett Thomas
Published: 28th December 2006
Comments (5) Stumble
"We don't want to own it, we just want to, uhh, get our name on it?" - MS is trying to defend its RSS patent intentions.

"We don't want to own it, we just want to, uhh, get our name on it?" - MS is trying to defend its RSS patent intentions.

The land of patent and copyright law is grey area indeed. The entirety of intellectual property and the legal protections of are an area of great interest in the technology field - particularly where simple, efficient concepts are concerned. Things like RSS - which Microsoft has recently filed several patents to stake claim to.

Now, it appears MS is attempting to define why it's seeking the patents, albeit the word "poorly" comes to mind. According to the RSS Program Leads over in Redmond, Microsoft is in no way trying to claim all rights to RSS technology, or to charge anyone to use it. Instead, Microsoft is looking to patent "specific ways to improve the RSS end-user and developer experience."

In business, it isn't at all uncommon for a company to throw out a boatload of patents in order to protect what it's about to invest in. However, the digital realm becomes a bit more perilous - Microsoft is seeking patents for parts of current RSS technology in order to improve it. In other words, it wants to make sure parts are exclusive before it goes investing in them, just to find out that its work is now open-source because it holds no rights over RSS to begin with.

The problem is, once someone owns the patent to something, all gloves come off - that product is owned by the company, who can then charge license fees for it. With a technology as broadly useful and simplistic as RSS, that can be an uncomfortable reality. This is made even worse by the fact that RSS is a fairly mature technology, and many companies already use it as part of a larger information exchange - so MS would have to approve those uses.

Of course, Microsoft also doesn't have the best track record with sharing - so no matter how noble the company's statements attempt to make it sound, there are many of us standing by looking skeptical. The entire patent system seems a bit flawed - and apparently judges agree, as the Supreme Court is looking into making it harder to patent technologies.

Have you got a thought on the patent issues? Tell us about it in our forums.
MSI GX700 Laptop
Quote Tyinsar 28th December 2006, 17:46
In other news: MS says it doesn't want to rule the entire world, just the parts with money. (any amount, even the poorest parts)

I think it's too late to patent this now and if it's not then someone should sue MS for copying tabs and the fact that they function almost exactly like those in another browser (that had them before MS).
Quote DXR_13KE 28th December 2006, 21:28
lets hope they don't f*** RSS up..... or parts of it.
Quote Aankhen 28th December 2006, 23:00
Software patents = bad. There's no way around it. No matter what Microsoft says right now, once it has the patent, there's every possibility it'll do a 180° turn and start trying to charge everybody on the Web for using RSS.

Why, oh why, are software patents granted at all?
Quote MrBurritoMan 28th December 2006, 23:28
i love the way that they said it
Quote:
Microsoft is looking to patent "specific ways to improve the RSS end-user and developer experience
man the marketing boys in Redmond put their best foot forward on that one. I'm sure that MS would not stop at tweaking RSS a little. I'm sure that they would also charge for its use. it makes me wonder who they are trying to fool by writing such sugared up crap.
Quote jezmck 29th December 2006, 09:15
How on earth could they charge us for technology which can run completely apart from any of their technology?
It's in such wide use that trying to control its use would be nigh on impossible.
Like trying to control the use of handkerchiefs.
Log in

You are not logged in, please login with your forum account below. If you don't already have an account please register to start contributing.



MSI P45 Series Motherboards


Stats: 0.125 seconds