Microsoft Loses Patent Dispute Over XML Use in Word -- Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine Online

IANAL, but I can’t believe this patent is going to hold up

"XML is clearly in the public domain," said i4i's Chairman Loudon Owen. "What we have developed at i4i is what's customarily referred to as 'customer-centric' or 'custom XML,' which is allowing people to create customer-driven schema -- we'll call it templates or forms. So, while XML is used to tag and to mark the data that's created, our technology is used to create the whole schema and the management of the data."

The invention goes beyond XML, according to Owen.

"XML in and of itself -- just like the letters in the alphabet -- is not terribly useful," he said. "This implementation leverages XML."

The dispute concerned Microsoft Word, but Owen suggested that other applications using the technology might be next.

Microsoft Loses Patent Dispute Over XML Use in Word -- Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine Online