Patented Dot Net

Microsoft has applied for a broad patent over much of the DotNet technology: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-984052.html. Who didn't see this coming? Mono, PortableDotNet, how respond you?

I believe that Microsoft announced that, as part of the ECMA standardization process, Microsoft grants "everyone" the right to use all patents involved in the .Net Framework, royalty-free, in perpetuity.

What makes you believe this? Can you add a reference? --TomCargill

I don't have it handy, but I'll see what I can do to dig up the link. I'm about to go on a 2-month trans-american bike ride, so I'll be offline for all that time. -- ArlieDavis

I am not a lawyer or a Microsoft representative in any capacity whatsoever. However, this appears to be a very reasonable thing for Microsoft to do. They are purely defensive patents, designed to protect Microsoft, in case someone should attempt to patent something in the .Net Framework, that Microsoft believes it invented first. And at the same time, it assures the community that the .Net standards, standardized via ECMA, are legitimate public standards. And there is precedent for this same thing with other technologies standardized through ECMA.

So watch the knee-jerk reactions. This is not evil.

-- ArlieDavis

The only thing submitted to ECMA was the C# language, the CLI and some miscellaneous XML APIs (http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/ecma/), not the entire .NET framework. Microsoft has promised to vigorously enforce its patents otherwise.

That's fine. My comments still apply. -- ArlieDavis

that Microsoft believes it invented first

If Microsoft invented it first, this constitutes prior art (as long as it's published, for example as a paper in a journal), and doesn't need the protection of a patent. So why patent it?

Because many, many frivolous law suits have burned up many, many dollars, unnecessarily. Witness the stupid BT lawsuit over hyperlinks, among others. There have been lots of others. Microsoft has an unusually large target painted on its forehead. Defensive patents defeat this. -- ArlieDavis

CategoryMicrosoftTechnology