Re: [Patents] Re: USPTO to license proprietary e-mail alternative from EPO

[Roberto Micarelli <mi.ro@iol.it>]

On Monday 01 July 2002 22:00, PILCH Hartmut wrote:
>...
>
> I wouldn't complain if the PTO used proprietary software to do some of
> these things.  It is not important what the PTO uses internally but
> what it forces upon its customers.  The PTO is a public monopoly, and
> therefore it should use open standards state-of-the-art procedures
> rather than spend lots of money just to poorly reinvent the wheel and lock
> its customers into proprietary interfaces which people don't want to use
> and for which programmers don't want to develop applications because such
> interfaces have no future.

That's right, I totally agree. A public service must not rely on the fact 
that I MUST have a windows based PC. That's trivial. It is a regression with 
respect to the idea of information sharing that the Internet and its 
companion standards are based on.

--
R. Micarelli