Groklaw Says Microsoft Patent Portfolio Now Worthless 219
twitter writes "P.J. concludes her look at the Bilski decision: 'you'll recall patent lawyer Gene Quinn immediately wrote that it was bad news for Microsoft, that "much of the Microsoft patent portfolio has gone up in smoke" because, as Quinn's partner John White pointed out to him, "Microsoft doesn't make machines." Not just Microsoft. His analysis was that many software patents that had issued prior to Bilski, depending on how they were drafted, "are almost certainly now worthless." ... He was not the only attorney to think about Microsoft in writing about Bilski.'"
What is a machine? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What is a machine? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What is a machine? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Turing machines and turning machines (Score:5, Funny)
Linear bounded automaton, AKA Joe Six-pack
"rent-seeking patent jackals" (Score:2, Funny)
Heh, heh. Phrase-of-the-day, for sure.
Re:Mice, keyboards, xbox, ... (Score:3, Funny)
patents on mice. That'll keep their monopoly intact.
Not so fast (Score:4, Funny)
What if you use virtual memory?
Ha!
Re:It doesn't matter... (Score:2, Funny)
I'm not sure that isn't a pyrrhic victory. I mean... before, it was like this:
M$: Boohoo, Linux is stealing our valuable patented IP!
Everyone else: Show us some of those "patents"?
M$: Um, sorry, gotta go, bye!
Now it'll be:
M$: Boohoo, Linux is stealing our valuable IP!
Everyone else: Show us some of that "IP"?
M$: It's a trade secret!
Well, or something like that - you get the idea. Before, they made specific claims which we could call them on ("show us the patents we supposedly violate!"); now, it's just going to be nebulous claims which, while less convincing, will also be harder to actually refute.
Re:Turing machines and turning machines (Score:3, Funny)
Do we really want to limit ourselves to a single universe? That's the kind of short-sighted thinking that led us to the Y2K bug.
Re:If the only hammer you have is a tool... (Score:5, Funny)
Basically, the argument is if you have a nail that isn't patentable and a hammer that was specifically designed to hit nails with then hitting the nail with the hammer is obvious and not patentable
OTOH, patent lawyers' heads are also not patentable, but hitting them with a hammer is not obvious, and might in fact be patentable.
Re:"Microsoft doesn't make machines." (Score:3, Funny)