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Story: Microsoft corners another Android manufacturer on patentsTotal Replies: 12
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Fettoosh

Jun 30, 2011
8:36 AM EDT
Any one knows what the status of MS lawsuits against Barnes & Noble and Motorola?

They are the ones to watch. I bet MS is going to settle out of court to avoid losing in court.

dinotrac

Jun 30, 2011
9:37 AM EDT
@fettoosh

Have any of these actually gone to court?
Fettoosh

Jun 30, 2011
10:20 AM EDT
Quoting:Have any of these actually gone to court?


Good question Dino. To the best of my knowledge, I don't think so. All I heard is suit counter-suit filings.



JaseP

Jun 30, 2011
10:34 AM EDT
I don't think they have gone to court... Just bullying & a cost/benefit analysis of fighting the suit versus selling out.
skelband

Jun 30, 2011
1:11 PM EDT
This assault by Microsoft on Android makers makes me feel kinda dirty and spoiled.

There's just something disquieting and unnatural about it, like the thought of watching child porn, it's just not right.

It's also an interesting indicator of Microsoft's increasingly desperate throes in the IT industry and more than a little essence of the Balmer bully-boy ethic all over it.
JaseP

Jun 30, 2011
2:02 PM EDT
I think that IBM, Intel, et al, need to open up a big can of whoop-arse on M$. Google should be in there as well, and post the names of House & Senate corporate lackeys on the front of its search page, to "educate" the public, & get them frothy at the mouth. I'm getting the feeling that nothing short of Patent Armageddon is going to get us any real reform. This kind of corporate extortion has to stop.
dinotrac

Jun 30, 2011
2:20 PM EDT
@JaseP -

What would you suggest?

Product defamation, maybe?

These attacks on android suggest, at the very least, that it's not fully above board and that Google is an infringer.
skelband

Jun 30, 2011
2:43 PM EDT
"These attacks on android suggest, at the very least, that it's not fully above board and that Google is an infringer."

Wow, what do you base that assessment on? No smoke without fire? Is that it?

Motorola and Amazon disagree.
Fettoosh

Jun 30, 2011
3:06 PM EDT
Quoting:This kind of corporate extortion has to stop.


Yes it has to stop, but how?

"Patent Armageddon" will not happen, those who are leading the extortion will not allow it to reach this level.

The only way to stop this fiasco is to declare all software patents to be invalid [edited] or at least make the USPTO a government supported organization rather than supported by patent fees.

That is almost impossible to happen when big corps are the major beneficiaries and small companies are at a big disadvantage in the current system.

dinotrac

Jun 30, 2011
3:14 PM EDT
@skelband --

Context.

Product defamation is the making of false statements to damage a product's (or it's producer's) reputation.

I can't imagine that it's too much of a stretch to claim that Microsoft is doing exactly that in its attempts to extort money from android licensees. The stumbling block would be that it may well be relying on patents in its portfolio, so that Google would have to establish that those patents are not infringed AND that Microsoft had reason to know that they are not infringed.
JaseP

Jun 30, 2011
3:25 PM EDT
Dino,

Do everyone and yourself a favor and read the entire answer of Barnes & Noble to M$. You can find it at Groklaw. It's very telling. M$'s MO is... claim patent violations of weak patents, insist on an NDA, charge more in royalties for infringement of these weak patents than you do for your OS alternative & hope your enemy is a wimp (I really want too use stronger language, there). The reports of Gartner are apparently true (whodda guessed?!?!),... that M$ makes more on Android extortion shake-downs than they do on WinPhone7.

Android's no infringer... M$ just has no relevance any more.
Fettoosh

Jun 30, 2011
3:43 PM EDT
Quoting: so that Google would have to establish that those patents are not infringed AND that Microsoft had reason to know that they are not infringed.


Most patents that MS cites are so broad and very unlikely to find a way to defend against them other than proving them invalid.

Not best of sources, but will do for this

http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/03/microsoft-sues-barne...

Quoting:
  • US Patent No. 5,778,372 on "remote retrieval and display management of electronic document with incorporated images"
  • US Patent No. 6,339,780 on "Loading status in a hypermedia browser having a limited available display area" (this is the one that was previously also asserted against Motorola)
  • US Patent No. 5,889,522 on "system provided child window controls"
  • US Patent No. 6,891,551 on "selection handles in editing electronic documents"
  • US Patent No. 6,957,233 on "Method and apparatus for capturing and rendering annotations for non-modifiable electronic content"


dinotrac

Jun 30, 2011
4:26 PM EDT
@fettoosh --

You defend against the specific claims in a patent, not against their titles.

You can, in fact, have a dozen different patents doing the same thing different ways.

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