SourceFor more than three years now, Microsoft has held to the line that it has loads of patents that are infringed by Google's Android operating system. "Licensing is the solution," wrote the company's head IP honcho in 2011, explaining Microsoft's decision to sue Barnes & Noble's Android-powered Nook reader.
Microsoft has revealed a few of those patents since as it has unleashed litigation against Android device makers. But for the most part, they've remained secret. That's led to a kind of parlor game where industry observers have speculated about what patents Microsoft might be holding over Android.
That long guessing game is now over. A list of hundreds of patents that Microsoft believes entitle it to royalties over Android phones, and perhaps smartphones in general, has been published on a Chinese language website.
The patents Microsoft plans to wield against Android describe a range of technologies. They include lots of technologies developed at Microsoft, as well as patents that Microsoft acquired by participating in the Rockstar Consortium, which spent $4.5 billion on patents that were auctioned off after the Nortel bankruptcy.
The list of patents was apparently produced as part of a Chinese government antitrust review relating to Microsoft's purchase of Nokia. Microsoft described the results of that review in an April 8 blog post, writing that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) "concluded after its investigation that Microsoft holds approximately 200 patent families that are necessary to build an Android smartphone."
A Guy
All those patents and legal wars between big companies, just make me sick. Now all of sudden, everyone is copy-pasting everyone!! While most likely, they both steal the idea from the same place and are just exploiting that fact.
This makes me remember of two excellent articles about the subject:
The Patent Protection Racket - Joel on Software
Victory Lap for Ask Patents - Joel on Software
Hi there
Wouldn't it be good if we could have a 3 Month Lawyers strike (for CIVIL cases / suits - the Criminal justice system must of course carry on) and all the fees that they would have earned should go to any charities / foundations they select.
Does anybody really think we'd be better off if Apple for example retained complete monopoly of the smart mobile market. I'm glad Samsung are in there as well as HTC and even Nokia with the windows phone.
Look at the crazy mess years ago when IBM got involved with the EU commission -- big money spent but NOT A SINGLE "ORDINARY" person was even 2 cents better off.
Why shouldn't we be allowed to "reverse Engineer" any product we like -- we might come up with a BETTER one than the original.
The original IBM Fortran Compilers were actually written using code generated from the System Assembler - the Fortran source would be converted to IBM system/360 assembler language and then that would be input to the Assembler to generate the executable code.
People thankfully came up with much better techniques for compiler writing -- if they hadn't we'd still be waiting 30 mins or more to boot up Windows even with an i7 processor !!.
Strict patents are OK - one should be rewarded for decent inventions - but when we get two giant companies suing each other for billions over "how rounded the corners are" on a device -- well now I'm certain the whole corporate law stuff has gone totally bonkers.
(The EU commission has a lot of silly antics too -- for example the "curvedness or not of Bananas" was a classic Lawyers fest - and I'm not sure but I think it's still ongoing !!!).
Cheers
jimbo
Almost everything we do is "copying". It is how we learn and how knowledge passes from one genration to another. Aside from perhaps Hawking - who was the last person that came up with something truly original.
It is very very very rare.
We need to rip up this ipr stuff and start again.
Interesting link Alexandro.
That is great, he is trying to get people to stand together. That is how all great freedoms are won.
It is not just patents and IT. In my industry, the small guy is constantly being ripped off by the big players. It has become far worse in recent years.
The two basic scams are:
1) Your work is used in other countries. Nobody tells you, and you do not get paid. Although there are some companies who do not behave like that - it is so common, I would say it is the norm. One very large international corp told me they get away with it 9 times out of 10.
2) The buyout. Either you sign away all your rights for just the day rate ( or perhaps the day rate plus a tiny bit ) - or you do not get the job. Because people need to work, they are being forced to sign away their rights in perpetuity.
The way to stop that kind of abuse is for everyone ( or the vast majority ) to stand together and say NO.
Sadly, it seems people have become more defeatist in recent years. They just shrug and say what can you do.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/04/02.html
Last edited by SIW2; 17 Jun 2014 at 09:18.
