Comments on: Microsoft gives go-ahead to open-source Web services

Company won't assert patents related to 35 Web services specs--a move designed to ease developers' legal concerns.

[imacpwr]

pledging...??????

Har, Har, Har..

Don't trust Microsoft farther than you can spit.

[David Arbogast]

Just like the others

...you get no better from SUN, IBM, Oracle, Nokia, .......... not SCO, tho.

[hollasch]

Pledging is Largely Sufficient

What's to trust? Microsoft has made a public announcement of this pledge. This blows a wide hole in any future case they might make in asserting infringement of these patents. How is this insufficient?

[qwerty75]

Consider me not impressed

So they are basically releasing unfounded patents. wow.

Since all software patents are invalid, who cares?
Everyone has prior art attached and is obvious, and mst are just vague ideas, not comcrete implementations.

What happened to the original intent of patents? Once a patent was granted, the details had to be released, so others could build on the idea. This was the intent of the patent clause in the constitution. COrporate intrests have paid off congress to skew it beyond any value.

Besides that, software is completely protected by copyrights, patent are not needed and illogical. Happily most of the civilized world is slowly moving towards banning software patents and the US will be forced to get rid of them because the rest of the world will be innovating while the US gets left behind.

Isn't corporate greed shortsighed?

[dargon19888]

Not quite....

I wouldnt' go so far as to say that all software patents are unfounded.

Thats not to say that there are a lot of unfounded software patents.

But I guess what it does do is halt or slow down the challenging of most of these patents.

With respect to their statement, it doesn't reduce the potential of future claims.

[Seaspray0]

But...

If it wasn't for sofware patents, we'd have alot of out of work lawers. You wouldn't want that on your concience, would you?

[t8]

Never trust Microsoft.

They have proved themselves untrustworthy before.
The Web is open. Microsoft isn't.
Open source is more compatiable with the Web, than Microsoft will ever be.