RSSMicrosoft Opens Up Web Services Tech
By Ed Oswald | Published September 13, 2006, 11:55 AM
Although many would not associate Microsoft with the words "open" and "promise," the company made a commitment Tuesday to not assert its patents across 35 Web services specifications. In making the move, the company hopes to spur development of new web services, as well as ease developer concerns.
The "Open Specification Promise" is essentially a promise to not take legal action against any developer, unless that developer takes or participates in legal action against Microsoft related to the patents included. It also means those using the specifications would not have to sign a licensing agreement.
Microsoft decided on this approach as it was the easiest method to allow developers to continue to develop Web services free of concerns of legal ramifications from the Redmond company. A developer has the choice of implementing all or some of the specifications within their applications.
"The OSP applies whether you have a full or partial implementation. You get the same irrevocable promise from us either way," Microsoft said in a FAQ describing the program. According to developers, while the company has not launched any legal actions involving web services technologies, licensing and royalties was a concern.
Included in the specifications are interoperability and security protocols, as well as specifications allowing for the inclusion of the SOAP protocol within a Web service.
Reaction from the developer community has been positive. "We commend Microsoft's efforts to reach out to representatives from the open source community and solicit their feedback on this text, and Microsoft's willingness to make modifications in response to our comments," Redhat Deputy General Counsel Mark Webbink said.
Technology lawyer and open standards supporter Andy Updegrove also had praise for Microsoft's latest move to open up.
"I think that this move should be greeted with approval, and that Microsoft deserves to be congratulated for this action. I hope that the standards affected will only be the first of many that Microsoft, and hopefully other patent owners as well, benefit with similar pledges," Updegrove said in his Web log Tuesday.
Microsoft has opened up its specifications once before; in November 2004, the company said it would open up the XML document specifications within Office 2003.
"Although many would not associate Microsoft with the words "open" and "promise,""
Nice. Aparently Betanews' writers are now Microsoft H8R's too.
Keep up the great "News," posts.
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It was meant as a tongue-in-cheek reference to those "haters" you talk about, not to infer we are biased against them. If you took it that way, I'm sorry.
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I think this sounds like a fair promise.
Its basicly unless you think you can push us down the stairs with by trying to sue us, were going to allow you to use "such a such" without you having to worry that we will come sue you.
Perhaps playing the "nice" kid on the block ( I have always thought Microsoft did this ) but perhaps yelling it, might get the attention of these idiots, who sue Microsoft because they thought of good ideas and over the course of 20 years have decided to put them in their OS ( even making the OS more better by doing this ).
I mean I know IE is not exactly the best browser, but it does its job well, and I am not sure if Windows would be Windows without it ( lets face it, if IE wasn't free ( part of the OS ), we would have to purchase a browser in order to surf the internet ).
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VIsta will be Windows without it.
AFAIK, IE is no longer built into the OS as of Vista.
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That's one of the biggest things about Vista; MSFT not packaging IE into the OS anymore. From what I heard from a few friends on the Vista team, it was like taking a step back in time to actually have explorer be it's own application without all the IE dependencies.
~dnc
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In order to retain ownership of a patent, are you not required to defend it?
If one of these businessess uses a patent, and then sues MS, would MS be able to go back and sue them for infringement if they've knowingly allowed such infringement in the past?
This looks like a *really* dumb idea. Either unregister the patent, or keep it. Lame promises such as this can only cause problems, not solve them.
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I would rather see MS sit on a patent and allow anyone to use the tech covered by that patent then have them either require a licensing agreement or have some small patent company come along and start sueing everyone and their mom.
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But they won't be allowed to sit on it. Once they start knowingly allowing its use, they lose any sole claim they had to it, at which point it becomes pretty much public domain.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just commenting that from a business standpoint, it's just dumb.
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If MS was to just drop it, some random patent troll could scoop it up and cause havoc. By holding on to it for the time being (much like IBM and Novel) they are perventing such problems by making sure no one else can claim it was their idea. Considering the state of the US Patent system, that would not be hard or surprising to see.
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...
"In order to retain
ownership of a patent,
are you not required
to defend it?"
...
That used to be the law, but isn't any more.
...
The Computer Rodent
...
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