Wherever I May Roam…

It’s April 2008 all over again. I’ve been reading up on OOXML and ODF when I came across an article that a Texas Judge rules Microsoft can’t sell MS Word. 

Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction that “prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML,” according to a statement released by attorneys for the plantiff, i4i.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10308013-75.html

Apparently, Microsoft infringed on a patent awarded to a Toronto-based company, i4i and Microsoft was ordered to pay $200 million.

Here’s the gloating part – I was one of those who lobbied against OOXML and even emailed Bureau of Products Standards (BPS), a division of our Department of Trade and Industry, and presented my arguments to them. An effort that proved futile since my country changed its vote to Yes on OOXML anyway – something that embarrass me to this day. By backing up a redundant AND broken technology, you’ve doomed Filipinos to an inferior product. By backing up a standards already tainted with software patent issues, you’ve doomed Filipinos to an uncertain file format future. Again, yes… I’m still gloating.

But going back to the topic at hand, I remember an MS representative who came to our workplace and talked about the advantages of software patents and patent reforms. It sure is a bitch to have your measly presentation come back and bite you in the ass.

But I’m still proud to live in a country that have saner copyright and patent laws. In the Philippines, works or art such as source codes and software can be copyright(ed), but not patented.

Can you imagine what it’ll be like if someone patents hotkeys? No more Ctrl+C, in fact, why the hell would we need the Ctrl, Alt, and Windows keys?

And they say software patents would encourage innovation? Maybe, but 20 years at a time when that patent has expired.

They say software patents would benefit developers? How? By developing an intuitive way to navigate your windows, patenting it, and then sit on your ass for 20 years doing nothing but collect royalties. Hah! That’s only applicable to large software companies that have the resources (read: bunch of $50-an-hour lawyers paid to do research on existing patents).

It doesn’t encourage innovation – it promotes laziness.

Hoping…. still hoping… that our lawmakers don’t make the mistake of reforming our patent and copyright laws.

Powered by ScribeFire.