Just picked this up from an email:
A small software developer plans to seek royalties from companies that use XML, the latest example of patent claims embroiling the tech industry.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Scientigo owns two patents (No. 5,842,213 and No. 6,393,426) covering the transfer of "data in neutral forms." These patents, one of which was applied for in 1997, are infringed upon by the data-formatting standard XML, Scientigo executives assert.
Scientigo intends to "monetize" this intellectual property, Scientigo CEO Doyal Bryant said this week.
Rather than seek royalties itself, Scientigo has forged a tentative agreement with an intellectual-property licensing firm that will handle contracts with third parties, Bryant said. A final agreement could be announced early next week, he said.
"We're not interested in having us against the world. We're just looking for ways to leverage an asset; we have pretty concrete proof that makes us feel comfortable saying it is an asset," Bryant said.
special report
XML makes its mark
Developers reflect on the Web's lingua francaScientigo's claims are the latest to crop up in an industry that is sharply divided over the role of patents.
Advocates argue that the patent system protects intellectual property as intended. Detractors, including those who call for the elimination of software patents, say that patents make it simpler for businesses--sometimes pejoratively dubbed "patent trolls"--to legally prey on unsuspecting software users.
Bryant said that Scientigo over the past several months has had discussions with 47 companies regarding the patents, including large software providers Microsoft and Oracle.
Based on these talks, Bryant said he is confident that the company's patents will command royalties from software companies and other large organizations, such as Amazon.com, which use XML.
Vast ramifications
The ramifications of such a licensing request could be vast. XML has become a widely used method for storing and sharing information in many forms, from purchase orders to information in Web pages.
Most software companies use XML in some way, as do individual developers and corporate customers. The standard itself is developed at the World Wide Web Consortium, which published an initial draft of XML in late 1996 and proposed XML version 1.0 in December 1997.
Patent lawyer Bruce Sunstein, a co-founder of Boston-based Bromberg & Sunstein, viewed Scientigo's patents and concluded that the company will have difficulty in enforcing claims over XML.
Sunstein noted that XML is derived from SGML, which dates back to the 1980s. SGML, in turn, is based on computing concepts from the 1960s. If Scientigo's claims were ever litigated, the company would have to address all the prior work on data formats.
"You can wish them good luck if you want, but there is a lot of history this patent will have to deal with, and the fat lady has not finished singing on this one yet," Sunstein said.
Companies respond
A representative from IBM said that its intellectual property lawyers had not yet heard of Scientigo's claim.
Microsoft declined to say whether it has spoken to anyone from Scientigo. In general, though, the company minimized the effect of patent claims on something as legally well-protected as XML.
"XML has been around a long time, and people shouldn’t assume any one patent has broad implications. Often, patents are quite narrow and mostly irrelevant to the industry at large," David Kaefer, a Microsoft director of business development in charge of IP licensing |
