The application involved Microsoft's implementation of the developer environment, which the company calls "Object Test Bench," said the representative, who attributed the company's response to an InfoWorld press inquiry on the subject to Jason Matusow, Microsoft's senior directory of IP and interoperability.

"Microsoft mistakenly filed for a patent on a technology included in components of Visual Studio 2005 that was based upon an academic project to help individuals grasp introductory concepts of software programming through pictorial representation of code," the representative said.

The company had been notified by Michael K'lling, the creator of BlueJ, that the patent application covered technology substantially similar to his project. BlueJ is an IDE for teaching object-oriented programming and Java to beginners, according to K'lling's blog.

"Microsoft agrees with Professor K'lling, and in keeping with the company's standards for quality patent filings, [it is] expressly abandoning the patent application with the USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) through normal procedures," the company said.

K'lling could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. But in his , he raised the question of whether Microsoft's patent application would be denied because it was based on "prior art," which is technology that already existed.