Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs -> Groklaw

Intellectual Property Law

: Groklaw

Why didn't Microsoft tell us about i4i's patent litigation during the OOXML standards push?

By Pamela Jones et al.

I have a question for Microsoft. Why didn't they tell us about this i4i patent litigation during the OOXML ISO process? Didn't we need to know?

The litigation began on March 8, 2007 when i4i filed its complaint. That is back in the very earliest days of the OOXML saga, when Ecma was answering some critics inside the ISO process who thought Ecma 376, later to be named OOXML, shouldn't be put on the fast track. It was officially put on the fast track by ISO a couple of days later anyhow. Remember all that? That's pretty much how OOXML got to be a standard, actually, I'd say, in microcosm. Techies pointed out issues, and some higher up would say, So what? Over and over and over. Until it was over. And now look what you've got. You should listen to techies, folks, when the issue is tech.

Anyone recall anyone mentioning an i4i patent that could make customXML unusable in the entire United States?

Now what? Well, look at this, from Government Computer News:

i4i said it has looked at OpenOffice and found it doesn't infringe on its patents.

So, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Straight from the horse's mouth, so no need to look to any other part of the horse's anatomy. No need for analysts' opinions and such. OpenOffice.org is clean, according to the i4i folks, and it's their patent. As for ODF, it doesn't use CustomXML, and it had no plans to do so, despite what you've been reading in the fuddy papers.

Full post as published by Groklaw on August 18, 2009 (boomark / email).