IBM Drops Internet Patent Bombshell
David Berlind,
ZDNet Tech Update,
Apr 17, 2002
Members of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) were stunned to learn in late March that IBM is claiming two key patents that could undermine the proposed e-business XML protocol (ebXML). This story is relevant to educational developers because two widely used protocols - SOAP and WSDL - are also privately owned by IBM and Microsoft. Additionally, large corporate contributions have been made to educational protocols such as the Instructional Management Systems (IMS) protocols (on which SCORM is based). Now even if IBM backs away from any claim to royalties - which I expect it will - they nonetheless wield a powerful weapon (which amounts to a veto) when dealing with standards users. I cannot caution educational software and content developers enough: do not lock yourselves into a single standard.
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