Microsoft signs up Compal in patent deal, claims to get cut from half of all Android devices

How long before we see a vicious war erupt between Apple and Microsoft? By SIPHO HLONGWANE. : http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-10-25-the-patent-war...

I think it'd be great if those two had a giant war. In a military situation where you have two enemies, and they're enemies of each other, the best thing that can happen to you is your enemies waste their resources fighting each other while you don't get involved. I wonder if there's anything we can do to spark a war between these two.

A war between MS and Apple would be good in many ways. First, by fighting each other, they may drive more users and mindshare to FOSS software. It might help if they started suing each others' customers for patent infringement. Secondly, this war might finally get politicians to do something constructive about the patent situation, and enact a true patent reform (unlike the bogus "reform" that stupid Obama recently signed which didn't help things at all).

Patents are like nuclear weapons. You don't attack one who has them since retaliation could be very devastating to both parties. IBM & Microsoft learned to life together, so can Apple and Microsoft. So will Google and others. Google doesn't care until their bottom line is threatened. So far, MS is hitting OEMs, they in turn are hitting consumers. As long as every corporation is making their profits, nothing will happen.

As more big patent players are created, patent alliances will start forming.

Unfortunately I think Fettoosh is correct.

As long as all the corporations are making money, none of them will wish to rock the boat.

It will take some kind of government intervention <sarcasm> and we all know that's likely to happen in the US </sarcasm>.

Quoting: As more big patent players are created, patent alliances will start forming.

What do you mean, "will?" They already have started forming...

Quoting:What do you mean, "will?" They already have started forming...

You might be right, but I haven't heard of one agreement that is official and all patents wide inclusive. Like IBM or Google saying "If you sue FOSS for patents, you have to deal with me".

Wouldn't that be nice! :-)

Doesn't Microsoft already own a fair chunk of Apple?

@Bernard: I thought they sold that off years ago.

Anyway, I'm still hoping that someone will get an itchy trigger finger and start a big war. Just look at how much Apple and Samsung have been going at it lately in the courts. We're never going to have progress on the patent situation as long as there big players avoid rocking the boat.

The Terminator movies are actually documentaries, and the Machines are Apple and Microsoft. We're just the collateral damage.

@tuxchick: I think your post is highly offensive to the machines; there's no way they'd have any resemblance to the unreliable junk that Apple and MS produce.

Good point, Grishnakh, what was I thinking!

War? Nuclear weapons? Trigger finger? Seriously?

I thought the Terminator series was a documentary about how my ex's existence came to pass...

As some time in the not too distant future, we may see a phone that does not communicate with a computer out of the box and will reduce the Microsoft smart phone "FAT" tax collections at least. Aimed at those smart phone users that don't own or communicate with a computer from the phone, there will also be an app available for $5, or whatever the extortion price is, and as long as it is made very clear up front that this is the case, it will not be a problem. As phones become more and more powerful, more people will only own a smart phone or tablet. The "extortion bounty" for Microsoft has to be temporary and it is only a matter of time before ways are found around the extortion tax. Microsoft is after all a one trick pony. Put your OS on every computer sold so that you get paid no matter what OS is actually used. The extortion tax obviously extends this into the smart phone market.

so what I don't understand is how mcirosoft can get money from manufacturer and then that manufacturer makes it for barnes and noble - so how can microsoft go after barnes and noble since they are already getting money from the manufacturer.

@jsusanka: I haven't read the article, but I don't think it can work that way. If a component manufacturer licenses a patent, then the products he makes are then covered by that license (usually, the deal is some sort of payment per device). Then, another company that buys those components is covered by the license, and doesn't need to buy additional licenses. The only exception I can think of offhand is if the component manufacturer only buys a limited license to use the patented technology, and then integrators have to pay per-device license fees separately, but it should be obvious that in that case, the component manufacturer would be paying much lower fees than in the first case. Another thing could be that, as is common these days with all the bogus patents, there isn't just one patent covering some "invention", but a whole slew of them, all tied together. So the component manufacturer may be licensing some, but not all of the patents in that group, whereas the integrator is licensing the others.

As I said in another post a minute ago here, I hope Apple and MS get into an all-out patent war against each other. This can only be good for the rest of us.

>As some time in the not too distant future, we may see a phone that does not communicate with a computer out of the box .........

@zentrader : take a look at this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38

You realize that in that video, all the touch surfaces were enabled by embedded computer technology, and that M$ will try to claim that they invented all of it,... Right?!?!

>You realize that in that video, all the touch surfaces were enabled by embedded computer technology, and that M$ will try to claim that they invented all of it,... Right?!?!

@JaseP : yea, so they can see what you eat in the kitchen and so on ... lol ... ->

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=... %2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20110153809.PGNR.&OS=DN/20110153809RS=DN/20110153809

http://us.generation-nt.com/incredible-evil-microsoft-seeks-...