Claiming that it may have patents necessarily infringed by implementations reading or writing files conforming to Office 2003 XML Schemas, Microsoft has published the terms of a license allowing third parties to create and distribute "Licensed Implementations" that support the XML Reference Schemas. A "Licensed Implementation" in this context refers to specific portions of a software product that solely read and write files that are fully compliant with the specifications for the Office Schemas. The Microsoft announcement of royalty-free licensing follows a period of "fruitful discussions with the Danish Government" and the publication of a 91-page report on "Open-Source Software in E-Government" from the Danish Board of Technology. XML Schemas and documentation for WordprocessingML, the XML file format for Microsoft Office Word 2003, are now available for download. Additional Microsoft Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas to be delivered in December 2003 include SpreadsheetML (Microsoft Office Excel 2003) and FormTemplate XML schemas (Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003). The Microsoft schemas define document structures used for presentation and layout of XML data, describing how information is stored when Microsoft Office documents are saved as XML.

Bibliographic Information

The download link for Microsoft Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas [2003-11-18] is provided from the Schemas Licensing page:

Microsoft Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas. File Name: 'O2003XMLREF.exe'. Download Size: 2015 KB. Date Published: 11/16/2003. Version: 2003. System Requirements - "Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center Edition [Windows XP or later]." Overview: "This download contains the Microsoft Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas and related documentation. The current download includes the schemas and documentation for WordprocessingML, the XML file format for Microsoft Office Word 2003. This download will be updated December 5th, 2003 to also contain schemas and documentation for SpreadsheetML (Microsoft Office Excel 2003) and FormTemplate XML schemas (Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003)..."

From the Reference Schema Patent License

The Office 2003 XML Reference Schema Patent License [2003-11-18] "is intended to expand upon the rights that Microsoft grants to certain Microsoft Office 2003 XML schemas... The technical specifications for the schemas include rights under copyright to make reproductions and to display and distribute those reproductions, subject to certain terms and conditions. The purpose of this document is to provide a patent license to individuals and organizations interested in implementing software programs that can read and write files that conform to such specifications..."

[Patent License excerpts:] "Microsoft may have patents and/or patent applications that are necessary for you to license in order to make, sell, or distribute software programs that read or write files that comply with the Microsoft specifications for the Office Schemas..."

"Except as provided below, Microsoft hereby grants you a royalty-free license under Microsoft's Necessary Claims to make, use, sell, offer to sell, import, and otherwise distribute Licensed Implementations solely for the purpose of reading and writing files that comply with the Microsoft specifications for the Office Schemas. A 'Licensed Implementation' means only those specific portions of a software product that read and writes files that are fully compliant with the specifications for the Office Schemas. The term 'Necessary Claims' means claims of a patent or patent application that are owned or controlled by Microsoft and that are necessarily infringed by reading or writing files pursuant to the requirements of the Office Schemas. A claim is necessarily infringed only when it is not possible to avoid infringing when conforming to the specification because there is no technically reasonable non-infringing alternative for reading or writing such files. Notwithstanding the foregoing, 'Necessary Claims' do not include any claims: (i) that would require a payment of royalties by Microsoft to unaffiliated third parties; (ii) covering any enabling technologies that may be necessary to make or use any product incorporating a Licensed Implementation (e.g., word processing, spreadsheet or presentation features or functionality, programming interfaces, protocols), or (iii) covering the reading or writing of files generally or covering the reading or writing of files other than those complying with the requirements of the specifications for the Office Schemas..."

"If you distribute, license or sell a Licensed Implementation, this license is conditioned upon you requiring that the following notice be prominently displayed in all copies and derivative works of your source code and in copies of the documentation and licenses associated with your Licensed Implementation [...]"

"You are not licensed to sublicense or transfer your rights..."

"Microsoft reserves the right to terminate this license grant if you sue Microsoft or any of Microsoft's affiliates for patent infringement over claims relating to reading or writing of files that comply with the Office Schemas..."

[See the complete text of the license for context and other details.]

From the Microsoft Announcement

"Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of a royalty-free licensing program for its Microsoft Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas and accompanying documentation. The Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas enable organizations of all sizes to utilize industry-standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology in managing spreadsheet, word processing and form documents. Microsoft's new Office 2003 versions of Word, Excel and the InfoPath information-gathering program utilize schemas that describe how information is stored when documents are saved as XML. By licensing the schemas royalty-free, Microsoft builds on its ongoing commitment to promote the development of XML as the next-generation technology for integrating applications, services and data sources.

As information exchange and integration have increased in critical importance, customers, partners, governments and the IT industry have asked Microsoft to deliver solutions that improve data interoperability and exchange. To help address these issues, Microsoft is delivering the Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas and enabling software companies to build products that can smoothly interoperate with Microsoft Office 2003. Licensees will also benefit from more readily available data identification within documents, ease of report generation and document assembly from existing content, and extraction of existing data for automated processing...

As a continuation of Microsoft's XML Web Services Scenarios strategy announced at Forum 2000, this license builds on the company's history of developing, supporting and playing a key role in promoting XML standards in the W3C, ECMA, OASIS and other standards organizations. To ensure broad availability and access, Microsoft is offering the royalty-free license using XML Schema Definitions (XSDs), the cross-industry standard developed by the W3C. The license provides access to the schemas and full documentation to interested parties and is designed for ease of use and adoption. The Microsoft Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas include WordprocessingML (Microsoft Office Word 2003), SpreadsheetML (Microsoft Office Excel 2003) and FormTemplate XML schemas (Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003).

The initiative came about after fruitful discussions with the Danish Government. One of the most important IT issues for government customers is managing, archiving, accessing and interchanging documents. The Danish government is already taking advantage of the open and royalty-free license for the Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas. The government's ambitious InfoStructure Base project seeks to encourage enhanced exchange of information across the Danish public sector by creating a repository of XML schemas. With an open and royalty-free license of the Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas, the Danish government will better realize its objective of promoting data exchange and interoperability..."