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RE: Small company makes big claims on XML patents

• To: "'ian.graham@u...'" <ian.graham@u...>, xml-dev@l...
• Subject: RE: Small company makes big claims on XML patents
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <len.bullard@i...>
• Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:04:12 -0500

One would speculate as the those interviewed to that 
such a patent would not stand up to a review.  That 
assumption was made for the EOLAS patent too and it 
has been upheld under review.

Having read the EOLAS decision, two things were clear 
to me:  lack of understanding of patent law and the 
nature of patent review is pandemic.  While technical 
understanding is required, the reviewer is reviewing the 
essential claims as they obtain to the precise description 
of the innovation with respect only to the approved prior 
art.  In other words, it is a paper chase among a specific 
set of submitted documents.  It does not consider any other 
prior art or circumstances.   Second, and following, it is 
very important that anyone seeking a review obtain prior 
art that clearly supports refutation of the claims, and that 
means perhaps invalidating industry mythology or OTHER claims 
made by other parties.   The EOLAS review is quite illuminating 
both with respect to the nature of the review and to the 
selection of the approved prior art.  Note how much emphasis 
is given to the precision of description in the essential 
claims with respect to a non-terminating program embedded 
within another program, and to the uniqueness of the class 
of software sometimes called a 'web browser'.  Had the 
claims or art varied, it is possible the decision might 
have been different.  Given the submissions, in my opinion, 
the review concluded correctly even if at odds with 
popular perceptions or privately held knowledge.

Fair disclosure:  the reviewer of EOLAS is a personal 
friend.  No, he cannot respond to arguments from me or 
others with regards to that decision.  All statements 
made above are purely mine, do not reflect considered 
or obtained legal analysis, the position of the reviewer 
private, public or professional nor are they the position 
of my employer.

len

From: ian.graham@u... [mailto:ian.graham@u...]

Here we go again -- I saw this in a ZD article: 

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5905949.html?tag=nl.e589

The article references the specific patents.... 

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