Microsoft needs to fight this. I'm sick and tired of these tiny companies getting some obscure patent for something incredibly obvious and being able to extort money out of other companies that actually put out products people use. Especially when it's an industry standard like XML or MP3, and they wait until it's gone into common usage before suing. If someone doesn't make a product almost immediately, their patent should be declared void and left to someone that actually can make the product. Copyright law exists soley to advance the arts and sciences, not "to make people money." Basically claiming you own XML isn't advance the arts and sciences. It's holding them ransom.

@ thenino - on the other side, Im tired of seeing huge companies patent every single part of game design, preventing other studios from using basic functions in games. Patents should be limited to physical products, not lines of code. Patent a new car, not a health system in a game.

@TheNino85 - i4i registered that patent way before XML became an industry standard, far before it was "incredibly obvious". And they filed the lawsuit the moment they learned Microsoft was infringing on it. Also, I don't think they were claiming they "own" XML, so much as they "own" a certain usage of XML that Microsoft infringed on. There's a difference, and it's incredibly major. Not to mention they're not as "small a company" as you're making them out to be. If the damages for this were deemed $290 million, then they're likely worth at least that much. That's... not a very small business.

However, I think ol' M$ will moneyhat this company. If Word is worth $3b/year to M$, then this meager $290m won't hold them back. They'll find a solution, and it'll probably involve permanent ownership.

seriously microsoft it's getting a taste from their own medicine.

they done it to gaming, linux etc.

but in the end they will just buy the company like they did with immersion.

This will get over turned in a higher court. lets be real here.

^This

Worst description of XML I've even seen.

Can't Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari etc get in trouble then as they handle and open .XML files? or is it ok because you can't edit them? or am I totally mis-understanding this lol?

yes you are.

because this patents its very strictly word processor related.

instead of saving all into .doc, .docx ads a .xml to handle everything like the formating etc etc.

and when xml surfaced 1996, they already had a patent for the use .xml in a word processor.

microsoft didn't start using it until 2003-2007. and it wasn't until 2007 they fully utilize it.

That is just flat out classic.