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W3C sides with Microsoft
It has been reported that the 'World Wide Web Consortium' has taken up Microsoft's cause in a lawsuit relating to patent infringement, by throwing its weight around with the U.S Patent and Trademark Office. The 'Consortium hopes its intervention will help to prevent any economic and technical damage to the general operation of the World Wide Web.
[blockquote]In a long letter sent Tuesday by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee to James Rogan, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, Berners-Lee claims that "prior art" - a legal term referring to technology in existence at the time a patent is applied for - proves U.S. Patent number 5,838,906 (the '906 patent) is invalid and that the USPTO should therefore re-examine the case for issuing the patent in the first place.
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Though the Redmond, Wash., software company is appealing the ruling, it is also making changes to Internet Explorer (IE) that may affect a "large number of existing Web pages," the W3C said in a statement Wednesday that accompanied a copy of Berners-Lee's letter.
"Removing the improperly disruptive effect of this invalid patent is important not only for the future of the Web, but also for the past," Berners-Lee said in the letter. "The '906 patent is a substantial setback for global interoperability and the success of the open Web," he added later in the letter.
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[link=http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1029w3csides.html]The full report[/link]
[blockquote]In a long letter sent Tuesday by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee to James Rogan, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, Berners-Lee claims that "prior art" - a legal term referring to technology in existence at the time a patent is applied for - proves U.S. Patent number 5,838,906 (the '906 patent) is invalid and that the USPTO should therefore re-examine the case for issuing the patent in the first place.
...
Though the Redmond, Wash., software company is appealing the ruling, it is also making changes to Internet Explorer (IE) that may affect a "large number of existing Web pages," the W3C said in a statement Wednesday that accompanied a copy of Berners-Lee's letter.
"Removing the improperly disruptive effect of this invalid patent is important not only for the future of the Web, but also for the past," Berners-Lee said in the letter. "The '906 patent is a substantial setback for global interoperability and the success of the open Web," he added later in the letter.
[/blockquote]
[link=http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1029w3csides.html]The full report[/link]
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