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Subject:Re: CSS - Not a ?. Some information. From:Jason Wynia <jwynia -at- AGRIS -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 8 Feb 1999 10:49:16 -0600
> Another interesting piece of information. MS was just issued a patent
> which may cover all implementations of CSS. Ofcourse, the
> claims in the
> patent are so broad they might almost claim to cover all such
> implementations, including SGML itself, so I don't know how well it's
> going to stand up, but it's got deep enough pockets and enough lawyers
> behind it that it just might cause a lot of problems in this area.
There's been heated discussion over at slashdot.org on this and other
patents that MS has gotten. They've also got one on providing an online
magazine that allows comments on articles. Plenty of others. Apparently,
no one at the PTO is checking all of the existing prior art on these things.
MS was part of the committe (W3C) that issued the first recommendation for
CSS. That recommendation came out before the filing of the patent claim.
So, basically, they were part of an board that created an open
recommendation and then patented the result. I can't see how this will hold
up in court. Then again $$ talks.
