Extensible Markup Language (‘XML’) is a standard for describing content data in a manner that facilitates the sharing of such content across different systems and applications. Over the last 10 years, the XML standard has been adopted across a wide range of environments in the IT industry. Microsoft is one of many companies that is re-aligning its existing product range to take advantage of the flexibility of XML. One of its current initiatives is the standardization of the Office Open XML File Formats (‘File Formats’).This paper reviews the standardisation process that Microsoft has embarked upon and examines Microsoft’s legal arrangements related to intellectual property associated with the File Formats and the manner in which that legal treatment interacts with other products currently on the market.
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Open source software (OSS) is both a philosophy and a process. As a philosophy it describes the intended use of software and methods for its distribution. Depending on your perspective, the concept of OSS is a relatively new idea being only five or ten years old. On the other hand, the GNU Software Project — a project advocating the distribution of “free” software — has been operational since the mid ‘80’s. Consequently, the ideas behind OSS have been around longer than you may think. When people think about OSS they often think about “free”, but the term “free” should be equated with freedom, and as such people who use “free” software should be:
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ConXML is an XML format used to describe conversational applications between people and services using clients such as the mobile phone messaging, instant messenger, and email. It allows conversational applications to be developed and deployed in an analogous way to HTML for visual applications. Many kinds of ConXML applications can be developed. These applications can include: content sharing, event management, polling, order inquiry, package tracking, driving directions, emergency notification, fiight tracking, customer relationship management, prescription refilling, audio newsmagazines, real-estate information and national directory assistance applications.
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