So much for the "Microsoft doesn't have a history of patent lawsuit trolling. [...] At the end of the day MS is a developer centric company, they pride themselves on the ability to make things, and patents are an annoying side show to that." argument found here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1745932
Microsoft doesn't have a history of patent trolling. Nor are they patent trolling now. Patent trolling is when an entity that neither invented nor practices the patent in suit obtained the rights to the patent and is enforcing it. When the plaintiff is the inventor and/or is practicing the patent, then bydefinition it is not patent trolling.
Patents are a big deal at Microsoft. They are highly encouraged. Employees who succeed in securing a patent receive a plaque that is proudly displayed in their office as well as a nice bonus.
Yeah, though what OP seems to be saying is that they're encouraging mid level workers to apply for patents. That seems pretty common and rather benign to me, certainly not indicative of patent trolling.
What I like about these lawsuits is the possibility that the big players will start aggressively campaigning for patent reform. As long as they all entered into cosy cross-licensing deals with each other, they were running an oligopoly that erected a barrier to entry against upstarts.
But now that they're starting to sue each other, the oligopoly's ranks have split and patents are going to bring everything to a stand-still.
> What I like about these lawsuits is the possibility that the big players will start aggressively campaigning for patent reform.
I wouldn't count on it -- if anything, they'll think, "hmm, we could be next, we'd better start getting patents of our own." Then once they have patents, someone in management will ask, "hey, we have these expensive patents, why don't we deploy them against the competition." That's especially true if some exec wants to get credit (and bonuses) for a license royalty stream or a damages award.
It is absolutely imperative that we all formulate our opinions in ignorance of the patents themselves. Pay no attention to the following words and numbers.
Common Name Space for Long and Short File Names: 5,579,517
Common Name Space for Long and Short File Names: 5,758,352
Monitoring Entropic Conditions of a Flash Memory Device as an Indicator for Invoking Erasure Operations: 6,621,746
Radio Interface Layer in a Cell Phone with a Set of APIs Having a
Hardware-Independent Proxy Layer and a Hardware-Specific Driver Layer: 6,826,762
Method and System for Managing Changes to a Contact Database: 6,909,910
Flexible Architecture for Notifying Applications of State Changes: 7,644,376
Context Sensitive Menu System/Menu Behavior: 5,664,133
Method and System for Supporting Off-line Mode of Operation and Synchronization Using Resource State Information: 6,578,054
Generating Meeting Requests and Group Scheduling from a Mobile Device: 6,370,566
So I took a look at Method and System for Managing Changes to a Contact Database. It's a pretty straightforward patent. The gist of that you can store the call information from a previous call into your contact list. From a given call you can say, "This is a new contact" or "This is an updated contact".
It was filed in 2002.
The key to prior art here is to show prior to 2002 some device that that could either create a new contact or update a contact from the call log.
I almost certainly recall the ability to create new contacts from the call log prior to 2002. I think the tricky part is that I don't I'd seen updating of an existing contact.
To me this seems like an easy patent to get around though. Simply remove the ability to update contacts from the call log.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but why are they targetting motorola? Don't these patents apply to, well, every smartphone in existence? It can't be a matter of stupidity, so I wonder what made them decide to go after Motorola, and not Nokia, Apple, HTC, Palm, and everyone else who makes a phone with a "Contact Database."
Well you have to read the actual claims. The title means nothing... like literally nothing. It could be that in their patent they require the contact list to also show a nickname, and only Motorola does that.
Who knows, but you should never speculate based on the patent name.
How did you read and understand 9 patents in under an hour? That is a feat that would be quite impressive for a seasoned patent attorney familiar with the technology covered by the patents.
They'll only sue you if you try to make money of it:
"If You engage in the commercial distribution or importation of software derived from an open source project or if You make or use such software outside the scope of creating such software code, You do not benefit from this promise for such distribution or for these other activities...
Software is deemed to be commercially distributed within the meaning of this promise when the distributor derives revenues in connection with the distribution, such as from subscriptions, updates, or user-based connection fees or from services that are contractually required for a customer to obtain the current version and/or updates of the software product in question."
That's not too accurately summarized. In the linked text they promise to not sue individuals participating noncommercial open source development related to certain covered techologies, which are protocols, languages, file formats and standards. A huge amount of stuff, both technologies and contexts, is left outside the pledge.
Thanks for linking, though; I never bothered to familiarize myself with this before.
Which specific Covered Specifications do you think are involved in this suit?
The pledge you cite (which is legally binding, BTW) is for people implementing specific specifications that Microsoft has listed under specific circumstances.
They want Motorola to build WinMo 7 phones. They sue because, if they didn't, nobody would bother to build them.
It's Extortion 101. You beat up one store-owner of the street so you don't have to beat up all of them. Nobody wants to be the second to be beaten up. You probably can't beat up all of them and that would serve no purpose.
I am surprised phone manufacturers - since they cross-license tech all the time - don't create a common defense fund for taking down there lawsuits.
Motorola still ships WinMo devices, but the only market that still needs them is industry. In NYC, traffic cops carry them, and I know that several food delivery companies use them. Between this patent suit and the late to the party Windows Phone 7, I hope Microsoft finally dies in the mobile phone space.
Which makes their move even more despicable. Instead of going to the source they attack a small player. Microsoft was supposed to be rising above this now.
The best part, Motorola has a bunch of patents of their own. This will be interesting to see unfold.
Don't think so, if they decided to sue it's because Motorola refused such agreement and because they believe they have a pretty strong case against MS patents.
Our action today merely seeks to ensure respect for our intellectual property rights infringed by Android devices; and judging by the recent actions by Apple and Oracle, we are not alone in this respect.
That's why they won't dare to sue Google. When they do, it's time to dump all your MSFT stock (if you still hold any) because they have nothing left to lose.
Ballmer said that the same way they "solved" the netbook problem, they will solve the phone problem. In both cases the solution does not involve technical ability to compete.
That is extraordinarily unlikely. I can't think of more than one or two big products that have ever been totally shut down as a result of patent infringement. It simply is not done.
Godfather walks into the Grocer's and demands they buy their deli meats from him. Grocer says "No thanks, I'm getting my meat free from those other guys. My customers are happy too."
Godfather says, "Yes, but not buying from me might expose you to harm in the future."
Grocer says, "It's OK, I'm not worried. Besides, who would want to hurt me?"
Godfather comes back the next week and shoots him in the kneecap. "See, I warned you someone might come in and hurt you."
s/Godfather/Microsoft/g
s/Grocer/Motorola/g
s/Deli Meat/Android/g
Wonder how much fight the next, um, Grocery store will put up.
