Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

1.  

   No Subject Given

   

   Diego, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 10:38am

   
   

   That's funny

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

2.  

   Re: No Subject Given

   

   Anonymous Coward, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 10:51am

   
   

   XML sucks anyway...

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

3.  

   Bah

   

   Just one guy, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 10:56am

   
   

   There will always be people trying to make a fast buck (or pretending they will very soon now) on some kind of weird ideas.
   
   Enforcing a patent on a technology whose birth and development is so well-documented and so well-known since the late '60? No way.
   
   This is no obscure bit or shared memory or whatever SCO focussed on with his IBM litigation about Linux. This is the whole XML thing dated back to HTML and SGML and back to GML in the late sixties...
   
   Couldn't it be that they are just looking for some time under the spotlight? Just an advertisement trick?
   
   I would not be worried.

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

4.  

   Patent Life

   

   Stoned4Life, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 10:56am

   
   

   If I got a patent on human existance, could I receive royalties for every nano-second you are alive?? 10 cents per year that you are alive, over 4 billion people, over 10 years.. that's $400 billion.
   
   I love patent laws.

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

5.  

   Spank them.

   

   crystalattice, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 10:56am

   
   

   There needs to be a way to punish companies that do this. It's just like that British company that claimed to own HTML.
   If the company truly owned a patent from 1997, then why have they waited nearly 10 years to pursue action on it? It's no one's fault but their own if they didn't know they had it. There should be statue of limitations on IP different from the 20+ years a patent is valid for. For example, you have 5 years to pursue monetary compensation for a patent or other IP. If you haven't done it by then, then you can't come, after the fact, claiming you own it if it's in worldwide use.

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

6.  

   No Subject Given

   

   Anonymous Coward, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 11:02am

   
   

   All Trolls must die!

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

7.  

   Re: Spank them.

   

   Anonymous Coward, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 11:02am

   
   

   What if you didn't know about the patent abuse for 5 years?
   
   I hold a patent and all of a sudden I'm expected to know what people are doing with it on a global scale? Is there some patent spycam network that I get access to or what?
   
   So to revise your idea and make it more workable, let's say a year from when you first knew about said abuse. Of course, proof of knowledge is hard to come by, but would be the only fair way to proceed.

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

8.  

   Only looked at the first patent(5,842,213) so far.

   

   Anonymous Coward, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 11:03am

   
   

   It describes "employing a non-hierarchical non-integrated structure to the organization of information"
   
   Correct me if I'm wrong, but XML seems very hierarchical.

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

9.  

   XML

   

   Allan W Janssen, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 11:04am

   
   

   What sort of a pant size is Extra-Medium-Large anyway, and do I have to pay them now if I don't loose weight?

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

10.  

    Maybe this will help get rid of XML

    

    M. Spankie, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 11:10am

    
    

    I've never understood why folks like XML anyway. They say it helps make the data more "readable" and self-descriptive. Who's actually reading the data that doesn't know what they are looking for? Every program, interface or service I have worked on knows the format of the data it is reading. XML only helps bloat the file(s) and of course make life a little easier on the hackers who get a hold of the files to read...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

11.  

    Patent on...

    

    Xeno, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 11:51am

    
    

    Can I patent Stupidity and Greed? Anyone got a patent on lawsuits yet?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

12.  

    Re: Spank them.

    

    bob, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 12:06pm

    
    

    Shut up. the wording is deliberately vague and might i say, sounds like it was put out there to try to grab money later on.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

13.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    

    Anonymous Coward, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 12:08pm

    
    

    XML has its uses.
    
    But I've found that 80% of my use of XML can be done using YAML: faster, cheaper, and easily.
    
    http://www.yaml.org
    
    YAML is free. Whether or not it violates the "xml patent" is up to your lawyer to determine.
    

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

14.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    

    Anonymous Coward, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 12:09pm

    
    

    No, trolls suck.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

15.  

    Good for them

    

    John, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 12:15pm

    
    

    Hey as long as the laws continue to permit and even reward this behavior, good for them, I hope they make a killing. It isn't their fault after all, they are acting within the absurd laws we have overpaid legislators to create. I agree that IP laws are way beyond what intelligent individuals would even consider doing to eachother, but hey, I guess no one in a postiion to DO something about it agrees with me or their constituents, and so it goes, on and on. Same for copyright.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

16.  

    No Subject Given

    

    Geisrud, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 12:18pm

    
    

    I read a patent spoof once that Micro$oft got a patent on the number "0" - as in binary. The spoof went on to say that since all code, and in fact everything, eventually breaks down to binary numbers, and everyone on the planet would have to pay a 1 cent royalty everytime they used a 0.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

17.  

    Re: Patent Life

    

    Aaron Friel, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 2:01pm

    
    

    "If I got a patent on human existance, could I receive royalties for every nano-second you are alive?? 10 cents per year that you are alive, over 4 billion people, over 10 years.. that's $400 billion."

    What's scarier is that some still believe there are only four billion people on earth.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

18.  

    Re: Only looked at the first patent(5,842,213) so

    

    malhombre, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 2:10pm

    
    

    Oh shit, thats the way I think!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

19.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    

    malhombre, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 2:18pm

    
    

    The best thing I've ever seen in favor of massively rethinking our current IP and copyright laws:
    
    from Monday, September 23, 2002 at http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/23/uk.silence/
    ---------------------------------------- ----
    
    LONDON, England -- A bizarre legal battle over a minute's silence in a recorded song has ended with a six-figure out-of-court settlement.
    
    British composer Mike Batt found himself the subject of a plagiarism action for including the song, "A One Minute Silence," on an album for his classical rock band The Planets.
    
    He was accused of copying it from a work by the late American composer John Cage, whose 1952 composition "4'33"" was totally silent.
    
    ---------------------------------------------
    
    And what the hell can I add to that?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

20.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    

    SOLIDUS, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 2:23pm

    
    

    Wow... so I've used XML on some of my home pages, now I'll even get sued? f-ck that idea. Those n00bs probably dont even know what XML really stands for...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

21.  

    No Subject Given

    

    Sohrab, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 3:13pm

    
    

    We sadly live in a society that everybody just wants to sue everybody else. That company isnt loosing out on crap but they just see this as a chance of getting some spot light and some extra cash. how pathetic.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

22.  

    Sue Happy?

    

    Peter, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 9:25pm

    
    

    Then take a number and get in line with the rest of the world. I think I should patent air...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

23.  

    Re: Sue Happy?

    

    Gaz, Oct 21st, 2005 @ 9:31pm

    
    

    I wonder if I could create a world of atheists just by putting a patent on God

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

24.  

    The real issue...

    

    Monkey Joe, Oct 23rd, 2005 @ 7:37pm

    
    

    -snip-
    Small company makes big claims on XML patents
    -end snip-
    
    Small company just got a heap of extra hits to its website, its name gets spread around and possibly a few more new clients...
    Is this "news" or just a cleverly hidden plug?
    Any coverage is good coverage to some...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

25.  

    Re: The real issue...

    

    Mike (profile), Oct 23rd, 2005 @ 9:42pm

    
    

    That might be the case if the company actually had something to sell, but they don't. They only have stuff to sue over.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

26.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    

    Anonymous Coward, Oct 23rd, 2005 @ 11:56pm

    
    

    In the case of Batt/Cage, Batt's mistake was adding Cage's name as co-composer. Cage's estate wanted their cut.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

27.  

    Re: Patent on...

    

    Ron, Oct 24th, 2005 @ 5:48am

    
    

    Sorry, Dorpus has already got the Stupidity patent all locked up!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

28.  

    

    Anonymous Coward, Jun 14th, 2007 @ 8:53pm

    
    

    xml are sexpr redone, right?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

Add Your Comment