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Microsoft Officially Responds about The RSS Patent Filed by them.

blogs.msdn.com — First, these patents describe specific ways to improve the RSS end-user and developer experience (which we believe are valuable and innovative contributions) -- they do not constitute a claim that Microsoft invented RSS. We have always fully acknowledged the innovators and supporters of RSS, like Dave Winer, Nick Bradbury and many others.

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  • schestowitz, on 10/12/2007, -22/+11Extend (very slightly), patent, then extinguish (through litigation).

    Where was Microsoft's PR Dept. when this decision to apply for this 'innovation' was made? Their excuse would have been more compelling had it been similar to that which was addressed at accusion for MS patent on door hinges.
    • ShrimpCrackers, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19@schestowitz

      Did you bother reading the patent? (It appeared the other day with yesterday's front page Digg=).

      Microsoft is essentially patenting their RSS system within their operating system and within IE. In nowhere does it say they were patenting RSS. and there is no such thing as extending patents to extinguish through litigation. This isn't a game of Risk.
    • ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4You should quickly read the patent application through. It is more about a system that aggregates RSS content further to other applications. Think of refactoring your RSS reading application into background daemon and sending the content via D-Bus to all subscribers. Something like that but it is definitely NOT a patent application for RSS itself.

      You couldn't patent "RSS within Vista/IE7" if you tried. This patent looks like it's trying to cover broadly RSS syndication, RSS aggregation, RSS feed conversion, and object-oriented libraries for working with RSS feeds.
    • krinthekuz, on 09/16/2008, -3/+3you don't realize that the disclaimer on this dev's blog means that his statement doesn't mean *****. the dev doesn't even say what MS is patenting... besides "improvements". *****. ms is going to try and claim basic features in RSS that are already there but not used by the big players yet. and they'll do this because they have incredibly broad patent claims. the end.
  • eagles2k3, on 10/12/2007, -7/+23If you really think MSFT is trying to patent RSS, then you're just a flat out idiot.
    • steveoco, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I believe that MS has grown up over the years and even though there not getting everything right, there contribution is very welcome, considering competition and more options for the users out there.

      The end of MS or APPLE is just going to make the leader more comfortable and less innovative.
    • scratched, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3@steveoco:

      I think they try too hard to be a part of every market. For every possible media format, MS has to try to make their own. Look at their attempt to re-invent the PDF. PDF files are a de facto standard for portable documents, and Microsoft still has been trying to make their own format. Competition may be a good thing in many areas, but things like the PDF for example, has already been done very well. The same goes for their windows media audio & video formats. They would be good if they would open the specifications, but we know that there's no way they could do that so it's not really useful.

      I'm all for healthy competition, that's why I use linux, but there are some things I don't think MS needs to compete in.
    • acs12798, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7well, if i remember correctly, microsoft wanted to include the ability to create pdfs in office 2007 and only after they were told they weren't allowed did they try and create there won competing format. I can't fault them for that.
    • cypherz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2@steveoco

      there != their
    • macewan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1@acs12798, it wasn't that simple.
  • freff, on 10/12/2007, -19/+6This story hits the front page with 29 diggs, and 2 comments. I'm not sure about this digg algorithm.

    Oh, it's a Microsoft response. IOW, a sponsored link.
    • Crumbeast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8The algorithm is working fine. It's Christmas Eve and no one is on the internet tubes, hence the fast promotion to the front page.
    • freff, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1I've been tracking a couple stories tonight that had more diggs and more comments than this one did when it hit the main page. It's not a big deal really, it's not my site. I'm just saying.
    • Crumbeast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6freff, the algorithm also tracks the speed at which a story is getting diggs
    • macewan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Colder tube temperatures cause frontpage acceleration 9 out of 10 times.
    • m3mn0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Maybe less people buried this story compared to the others.

      You didn't take that into account and there is no way to measure that as a user.
  • 1911wolf, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Dear Microsoft,

    Stop breaking the internets! Seriously, leave it alone we've all seen what a colossal disaster IE and Frontpage were.
  • Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1I hope Microsoft's patent breaks RSS and people can move on to something better. Push 2.0?
  • digitally5, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2***** microsoft anyhows, they suck... same goes to the xbox, same goes zune.
  • JoeSlingo, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1If it's from Microsoft, you can pretty much be guaranteed they will roll their own flavor of RSS into their OS and Browser which will not be compatible with the one in use now. Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. Simple, legal, effective.
  • Spr0k3t, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1The whole reason it is called RSS = Really Simple Sindication. Any expansion of the foundation of RSS and it is no longer RSS. I think Microsoft should make their own Java. Oh wait, that already happened... and failed.
  • m3mn0n, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1I don't know why this is even a big deal. Atom is a better syndication standard than any version of RSS and people should be looking at that and promoting it.

    But I guess it's the whole "windows effect" at work here. You use one thing, it does the job (no matter how inefficient) and a newer better alternative is ignored by the masses, and this inefficient thing stays mainstream & the de facto standard.

    *sigh*
  • altjeringa, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1While this isn't a patent of RSS it is a patent obvious and there are probably pre-existing implementations. One of the requirements for a thing to be patented is that it be non obvious to experts in the field under which the patent is filed. Nothing in this patent is "Non-obvious" it's all derivative at best. It should be denied.

    Mostly what Microsoft is doing here is building the ability to file lawsuits. When you can't do something innovative and valuable you patent the obvious and sue other people who beat you to the implementation. If you are defending this you would probably also defend Smucker patent on cutting the crust off a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and you should not be allowed to breath.
  • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Whatever MS does, I'm sure there's some kind of evil intent at the heart of it. This is a company that has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted.
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