On Fri, May 4, 2018 at 1:03 PM, George Neuner <gneuner2@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 3 May 2018 11:02:00 -0700, Adrian Klaver
<adrian.klaver@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>On 05/03/2018 09:47 AM, George Neuner wrote:
>>
>> ..., I would not discount the possibility that Microsoft really
>> has patented some variation of CSV. They absolutely did *try* to
>> copyright the use of + and - symbols for specifying addition and
>> subtraction operations in VisualBASIC.
>
>Not seeing it:
>
>http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2& Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=% 2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch- bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1= microsoft&FIELD1=AANM&co1=AND& TERM2=csv&FIELD2=&d=PTXT
That's the patent database. Microsoft tried to get a *copyright*. I
don't recall whether it was granted [I don't believe it was], and this
would have been circa ~1990, so it's hard to search for in any case.
Unlike the patent database, the copyright database does not contain
the protected material - it only gives archival references to it.
It generated quite a bit of negative press coverage at the time. The
basis of Microsoft's argument was that "x + y" was a unique and
protectable _expression_ of the addition concept because it could have
been done in other ways, e.g., by "add(x,y)".
I don't think in general you can copyright a file format. You can copyright things you create, and you can try to keep secret the information about how they work. People can't steal your code to create CSV files, but you can't tell people they can't string a bunch of values together with commas in between if they can figure out how to do so all by themselves. Plus it's hard to see how "fair use" wouldn't protect something as short as "x+y", or ",".
FWIW, Wikipedia includes CSV in its list of open formats. The article linked below also says no, although it seems UK-based, not U.S.
Cheers,
Ken
Ken
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