in message <MPG.2079dd4f680b7f88989713@n...>, Grant Robertson
('bogus@b...') wrote:

> In article <579umcF2c4idnU1@m...>, peter.nosp@m...
> says...
>> I meant XML is not patentable as a piece of
>> software. You can indeed patent anything you like in the USA, regardless
>> of whether it makes sense to or not. Patents can also be used
>> defensively, to prevent others less scrupulous from patenting ideas not
>> theirs.
> 
> That is the very reason I am asking. I am inventing an XML standard and
> am trying to decide if I should go to the trouble and expense of
> patenting it.

Absolutely not - in your own interest. Before the Web, there were dozens of
perfectly good distributed hypertext systems. Only problem - they were all
proprietary and so none of them got traction. If you overprotect
your 'invention', no-one will use it. 

People think Tim Berners Lee was foolish for 'giving away' the Web. But all
the inventors of the Web's predecessors are now marginal or out of
business all together, whereas Sir Tim has his knighthood, a great deal of
respect and influence in the community, and a very nice salary, thank you.

It's better to have a little bit of something very big than the whole of
something very small.

> My main reason for doing so would be to prevent the likes 
> of Microsoft from "embracing and extending" my standard in order to kill
> it or steal it.

They'll only try if it gets traction - and if you patent it it will never
get traction.

> Thanks for the info. Something tells me that there wouldn't be such a
> brouhaha over who owns patents to XML if W3C had crafted a well designed
> patent when they first invented XML years ago.

But no-one would be using XML if they had. XML is only a prolix syntax for
S-Expressions, and S-Expressions, though very flexible, are not the only
flexible expression of data. If XML were encumbered with patents, we'd all
be using something different.

-- 
simon@j... (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

        IMHO, there aren't enough committed Christians, but that's care 
        in the community for you.                          -- Ben Evans