Ridiculous Patents #3: Highlighting Numbers

Today we highlight a bad patent that is still being examined, so there's still a chance it won't be granted. But don't hold your breath. It is titled "Method and apparatus for visually emphasizing numerical data contained within an electronic document" and covers exactly what you think it does. If granted, anyone writing software that highlights numbers in a document at the user's request may be infringing the patent -- at least until February 11, 2024, when the patent would expire.

Now that's innovation.

What would Microsoft do with such a patent? Here are some of their options:

1. Prevent all competitors from implementing this feature, including word processors, web browsers, spreadsheets, email, etc. Only Microsoft's products would have this feature. Taken by itself, that doesn't seem like much of an advantage to Microsoft, but combine it with other pending patents, and we start to see a nice chunk of this idea space being owned by Microsoft alone.


2. Collect royalties from all competitors that want to implement this feature. Note that Microsoft's main office suite competitor currently appears to be OpenOffice, which, since it is free software, would not be able to afford even a small royalty. A royalty of $1 per copy would be enough to shut down virtually any open source software project.


3. Do nothing. Hold the patent defensively.

Luckily, Microsoft has a pattern of holding patents defensively (like most large software companies). But if MSOffice is ever seriously threatened, it seems only natural that the shareholders and board of directors would demand that the company take offensive measures against competition...

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