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RE[3]: Good news for .net?
by Alex Forster on Fri 13th Aug 2010 15:12 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Good news for .net?"
Alex Forster
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Of course it only covers "compatible" implementations.

Let's say that one of their patents isn't utter bullshit. Let's say that Outlook's PST format specification actually does something innovative and unique that's worth protecting - maybe they lifted a feature from Sql Server.

Let's also say I want to use this innovative feature in my database engine. If Microsoft allowed their PST patent exemption to cover "non-compatible" implementations, I could call my database engine a partial implementation of the PST format and get that patent exemption.

The point is that they're fine with you implementing a PST reader/writer library, but it's not cool if you pick and choose any of their patents and use them for other things.

Edited 2010-08-13 15:28 UTC

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