Microsoft Backs Off BlueJ Patent Claim

January 29, 2007

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A useful piece of functionality in Visual Studio had been incorporated into the product without attribution to its creator, Michael Kölling of the University of Kent. Microsoft then submitted a patent application for the tool, which they have reasonably withdrawn. Give Microsoft credit for quickly acting to clamp down on what would have been another public relations nightmare had it been allowed to continue. Dan Fernandez of the Visual Studio Express team For those of you who aren't developers and are wondering what the heck happened here, Microsoft not only failed to attribute Klling's work, but then moved forward to patent the "innovation" they developed. Being a topic where big, bad Microsoft was ready to curb-stomp the little guy, the story caught on in the Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Bookmark Murdok: David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.

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