The Open Invention Network is making good on its pledge to try to overturn the Linux-related patents that were contained in Microsoft’s recently settled litigation against TomTomNV.

Can anyone tell me what OOXML is for, other than for opening legacy Microsoft documents? What else is it for? When would you choose OOXML and when would you choose ODF, if you were, let's say, a government or a government agency?

IT IS ABUNDANTLY clear based on some shallow surveys that Microsoft's patents are often very poor in terms of quality. All sorts of simple algorithms which have been around for decades suddenly have Microsoft claim ownership of them. Here is the latest such example...

UK copyright laws "needlessly criminalise" music fans and need to be updated, a consumer watchdog says.

The judge in the SCO bankruptcy has denied [PDF] SCO's motion to extend exclusivity. Surprise, surprise. The only way to grant it was to rewrite bankruptcy law, as I read it, so everyone else can file a reorganization plan now, if they wish to. I notice they are not falling over each other to do so yet. And SCO has finally filed its monthly operating reports for March.

A jury in Rhode Island found Microsoft guilty of patent infringement, ordering it to pay US$388 million to Uniloc, the patent holder.

Good innovation policy requires understanding of the regulatory impact of each policy instrument individually, as well as knowledge about the interaction of different instruments. It is therefore necessary to look at the whole spectrum available within each instrument, as well as be aware of how other instruments may be empowered or invalidated through interaction.

Now that the gig is done, those who were responsible spill the beans