Dear Madu,
Madu wrote:Dear JJJ,
I can imagine your frustation, but unfortunately there is not much that can be done about this issue. See question 3, in the Frequesntly asked questions of PatXML.
3. Why was MS Word chosen over any of the other word-processing systems available (e.g. WordPerfect)?
If you are citing WordPerfect as an alternative to MS Office, this indicates, that your decision is quite old, possibly outdated and it might be the right time to reconsider it. I will give you some ideas to do so
Madu wrote:Most people now use Word as their preferred word processor. However, you can if you wish still author your applications in WordPerfect or any other word processor and import them into PatXML but you will still need
MS Word.
This is really bad. IMO an European institution should not be allowed to encroach on market developments. But with your statement, you are forcing patent applicants and inventors to use MS Word & Co. This is not neutral any more and with your statement you ARE indirectly advertising MS Office and you are indirectly also responsible for increasing the profits of Microsoft. Not that this is bad - but I think it is not the job for the European Patent Office, to increase the profits of an US-American company.
IMO your services should be non-discriminatory and platform-neutral. The only file format, that fulfill these terms ist the "Open Document Format" (ISO/IEC 26300:2006). Although Microsoft obtained an ISO standard (29500) by trickery, only very few people are encoding their documents with this "standard", Microsoft removed the format from their latest office-suite due to patent infringement(!) and last but not least: All Micosoft formats are properly written and read ONLY on Microsoft platforms by Microsoft-dependent applications. THIS is definitively NOT non-discriminatory, you are discriminating your Linux- and Mac customers by excluding them from you service.
If you were offering PatXML for ODF, everyone could use it, because ODF (and its main application OpenOffice.org) are as well available on Linux-, Mac- and as on Windows computers. Everyone is able to download, to install and to use OpenOffice.org free of charge.
Madu wrote:The EPO has always taken this path to develop for the medium that is used by the greater majority and that becomes more prudent in the present situation of resources that need to be put to the best use.
It is not so much the frustration about your somehow outdated decision but the (IMO) unacceptable patronage for one player in the market (that is serendipitously the monopolist).
My employer, and this is the reason, why I am getting somehow annoyed by your old fashioned arguments from the last century, my employer (an innovative technology-sme) wants to get rid of the Microsoft lock-in. We are convinced that their products are buggy, stupid and highly overpriced. We are really trying hard and then we see statements like yours, that are completely needlessly forcing us to stay in this crappy Windows world. We want to get rid of the "Windows taxes" and the insecure Microsoft products (e.g. worms, viruses, superfluous and ineffective virus scanners and firewalls inviting industrial espionage ..), but then national and/or European institutions ignore international and free standards and force companies and citizens to license software that is indeed undermining secure and interoperable IT.
In my opinion European institutions, especially ones, that provide important administrative services like the EPO, should be enforced to support only free and open file formats and interfaces. European companies and citizens should be able to decide freely, which software platforms and packages fit best their needs.
In the last century it was maybe necessary, to commit to one proprietary IT-platform. But nowadays, where Free and Open Source Software is available on equal footing with proprietary software, there is absolutely no reason left, why European institutions should force companies and citizens to waste a lot of money and time for software they do neither want, need nor are not able to use (e.g. MS Office on Linux ..).
I would really appreciate if you could reconsider your decision in the near future, the times have changed!
Kind regards,
Yussuf Schumbitrus
(Bonn, Germany)