History

The essence of tadag starts by putting the individual at the centre of the security, identity management and information management model. tadag-public sector extends the consumer model, by delivering personal certificated domains at the core of an architecture that seeks to empower citizens, delivering a paradigm shift away from the organisation-centric models of the past.

In 2004, tadag’s owners engaged with Microsoft to discuss how tadag intellectual property rights (IPR) could be protected to enable discussions on joint development. The two were already closely involved as strategic partners working in public sector IT. Following the signing of numerous non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) facilitated by Microsoft, as well as a documented partnership mandate, multiple senior Microsoft security personnel, from all over the world, reviewed a small part of tadag’s architecture and agreed that it represented a new vision for IT security. A draft paper was put together in 2004 to facilitate discussions for a proof of concept project involving owner’s RamTec and Microsoft Corporation. This paper was also later circulated to senior Microsoft executives (including Bill Gates). In early 2005, having agreed the originality of the concept, Microsoft unexpectedly broke off communications on tadag.

In April 2005, at an executive briefing in Redmond, Microsoft shared a confidential security development to a group of development partners that included tadag’s author, David Gale. Unwittingly, a senior Microsoft employee presented the previously shared component of tadag’s architecture to the audience, under the banner of an ‘exciting, still-under wraps, Microsoft innovation’. A formal complaint was immediately lodged, with assurances coming from Microsoft that a full internal investigation would take place. In 2005, three weeks after RamTec’s formal complaint, an exact replica of the disclosed component of the tadag architecture was filed for patent in the U.S., later to become known as OpenID.

Following reassurances from senior Microsoft Corp executives that a resolution would be forthcoming, partnership activity continued. David Gale was lead reference presenter at the global launch of BizTalk Server 2006, at the London Stock Exchange and, for two years, a retained consultant to Microsoft, presenting on their behalf at major events across Europe. Despite Microsoft claims of having conducted a thorough internal investigation, by February 2007, Bill Gates was on a podium announcing Microsoft’s ‘sponsorship’ of OpenID. Since then, Microsoft has variously: issued instructions to employees to deny any memory of previous communications (evidenced in an MS lawyer’s internal email), prevented senior executives from pursuing an investigation, denied the originality of the IPR, refused to reveal the outcome of an internal email scan, disputed the existence of NDAs, then finally disputed the validity of the Microsoft originated NDAs referenced to them.

This link takes you to the 2008 tadag report that details multiple breaches of trust by Microsoft and how a single component of tadag became ‘their’ idea. At no stage have Microsoft’s lawyers disputed the chronology contained within the report, nor that it began covert development of part of the tadag concept, nor that it sponsored a third party for its continued development. This page was originally published in January 2008 and remains unchallenged by Microsoft Corp, despite links to it having been forwarded to senior Redmond-based executives.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT DAVID GALE AT THE EMAIL ADDRESS CONTAINED WITHIN THE HEADER.

Copyright 2004-2021 David Gale – Consultant CTO, CIO & Enterprise Architect

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