Patents Won't Affect Office-XML License

Recent Microsoft patent filings are meant to protect methods that Office 2003 uses for authoring and rendering XML documents and could help Microsoft prevent future legal headaches, such as those caused by the recent Eolas lawsuit. The patents would also give Microsoft the ability to charge fees for the right to read and write to the Office 2003 XML schemas, but the company doesn’t plan to impose such fees. Quite the contrary: Microsoft wants third parties to create applications that can read and write to these schemas, thereby increasing Office 2003’s usefulness as a tool for authoring and managing XML.

License Gives Rights to Office Schemas

When users save a Word 2003, Excel 2003, or InfoPath document in XML format, the applications store the data by default in Microsoft-defined schemas known as WordprocessingML, SpreadsheetML, and FormTemplates, respectively. (InfoPath and Professional Editions of Word and Excel 2003 also support user-defined schemas.)

In Dec. 2003, Microsoft published a royalty-free license that developers can use to read and write XML documents using these schemas. This license could be useful to ISVs, partners, or IT organizations that want to use their own applications to produce Office-compatible documents or reports in XML, for example. The license could also be used by competitors, such as OpenOffice.org, to ensure that their applications can read and write to the Office schemas.