Matt Jones’ Blog

I remember noticing this several months ago. I decided to post it because I have not seen anyone else point it out.

The Office 12 Ribbon is Microsoft’s hot new UI design. They even set up a special web page where you can get a license to use their Ribbon. They even require you to implement all the features in the Ribbon to get the license. The list of nick picked details can be see on this site, that sells Ribbon controls.

There are so many problems with software patents, that it is amazing it got this far:

• Software Patents are always ‘obvious’ and ’simple’ which is what they are supposed to NOT be. This makes them self-invalidating
• Every patent is made up of other peoples ideas. If they were money grubbers, you would not have their shoulders to stand on, or would be encumbered by their patents
• Most software patents are so vague or overlap another patent so closly, that if they ever went to court, they would be thrown out
• Patents infuse a monetary lust into something that would normally benefit people. This creates incentive to horde, duplicate and bully patents away from humanity.
• If the software patent requirements were strict enough to be ‘non obvious’, they would be protecting that exact implementation of the software. We already have a system that works well for that. It is called copyright.
• And finally, the most important item here: Their is always prior art and overlap. And I mean always.

Which brings me to the showcase of this post. The Bluefish web editor has had a very Ribbon-like UI for many years. Look at this picture:

Hmm. Seems very similar to the MS Ribbon. But that begs the question: Where does the line between these ‘tabs with buttons’ and those ‘tabs with buttons’ lye? What would be the argument that would keep MS holding the patent (not that they actually have it) at the end of a court battle?

Would they argue that theirs has text too? Or that theirs is a little context sensitive? Are those even significant differences? No. No they are not.

So what do we take away from this blog post? Is it that software patents are stupid? I hope so.

Actually I hope you get the message that software patents are more than “biting the hand that feeds you”. They are more like some monstrous plan to keep the world in the 1950s (like you local telephone cartel wants).