Microsoft Wins US Import Ban On Motorola's Android Devices

jbrodkin writes "The U.S. International Trade Commission today ordered an import ban on Motorola Mobility Android products, agreeing with Microsoft that the devices infringe a Microsoft patent on 'generating meeting requests' from a mobile device. The import ban stems from a December ruling that the Motorola Atrix, Droid, and Xoom (among 18 total devices) infringed the patent, which Microsoft says is related to Exchange ActiveSync technology. Today, the ITC said in a 'final determination of violation' (PDF) that 'the appropriate form of relief in this investigation is a limited exclusion order prohibiting the unlicensed entry for consumption of mobile devices, associated software and components thereof covered by ... United States Patent No. 6,370,566 and that are manufactured abroad by or on behalf of, or imported by or on behalf of, Motorola.' Motorola (which is being acquired by Google) was the last major Android device maker not to pay off Microsoft in a patent licensing deal. Microsoft has already responded to the decision, saying it hopes Motorola will now reconsider."

Generating meeting requests?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you f'ing kidding me? The inmates really are running the asylum.

Glad they found something important to ban

[cvtan]

Once again - Generating Meeting Requests? That's certainly a good reason to ban a product. That's all I use my phone for!

Why the google hate?

[firesyde424]

Last time I looked(a few seconds ago), Motorola was being sued, not Google. Google was not even thinking about buying Motorola when those devices were made. So how is this Google hate even relevant?

Re:Generating meeting requests?

[Anonymous Coward]

Please read the whole summary carefully:
from a mobile device

These 4 words let you rehash any old shit into a patent no matter how obvious.

Re:Justice was fairly served

[Anonymous Coward]

Motorola did probably as much work on mobile tech in the early days as Nokia/Ericsson.

When it comes to that really difficult work Microsoft brings nothing to the table.

(Barnes and Noble didn't pay either and got bought off to drop the case).

It is not justice really. MS didn't pay hardly anything at all for most of its early stuff. (To Dec etc).

They shouldn't be able to pull this type of crap. (I don't hate MS anymore due to the fact they have a few quite products now and Gates is trying to do something good.) - (I quite like WP7 / Xbox 360 / Windows 7) - (Prior to Windows 7 I used either Solaris / Freebsd or Linux exclusively from 1999 onwards but it less easy to work with the abominations that are the modern DE's - When e17 is finally released I will probably go back to a *NIX - I am hoping it is before Windows 8 - Due to the work of Samsung it is getting very close to release - (Might as well use the best thing I can when the end of the world happens (Duke Nukem Forever is released) so this is the final thing).

The patents that are held by the Original pioneers - Nokia / Ericsson / Motorola should in a civilised society be worth far more than any junk software patents.

And the solution is...

[roc97007]

...don't use Exchange. Then you don't have to have a feature on your mobile device that will generate appointments for it. Problem solved.

If you're currently using Exchange, perhaps now is the time to think about using a cloud service for email.

That seems corrupt

[Mirkman]

I would have thought a ruling by a judge would be needed to render something banned from import. So the power to regulate allows government agencies the ability to make profound and legally binding decisions without need for court systems or due process? I was not aware the ITC were experts on IP.

Re:Generating meeting requests?

[Sfing_ter]

What if the androids can Generate Meeting Request From Their ASSES! The same place Microsoft is pulling these patent ideas from not to mention the idiots that make these feeble rulings.

The claims

[DeadCatX2]

FTFA: claims 1, 2, 5, or 6 of the United States Patent No. 6,370,566

FTFP:

1. A mobile device, comprising:

        an object store;
        an application program configured to maintain objects on the object store;
        a user input mechanism configured to receive user input information;
        a synchronization component configured to synchronize individual objects stored on the object store with remote objects stored on a remote object store;
        a communications component configured to communicate with a remote device containing the remote object store; and
        wherein the application program is further configured to generate a meeting object and an electronic mail scheduling request object based on the user input information.

2. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the application program is configured to generate the meeting object with a global identifier property uniquely identifying the meeting object among a plurality of other objects.

5. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the application program further comprises:

        a contacts application program configured to maintain objects on the object store indicative of contact information wherein the contact information includes address information indicative of a fully qualified electronic mail addresses for individuals identified by the contact information; and
        wherein the application program is configured to obtain the fully qualified electronic mail address of potential attendees identified by the contact information by interaction with the contacts application program.

6. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the application program is configured to generate the meeting object and the electronic mail scheduling request object such that properties of the objects are compatible with at least a second application program associated with the remote object store and different from the application program.

Claim 1: A mobile device.

Claim 2: Using a GUID.

Claim 5: And an address book.

Claim 6: Which talks to a remote server.

...

We're fucking doomed.

Re:The patent

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't PalmOS do this in the PalmPilot and Treo long before Microsoft thought mobile devices were interesting?

Can anyone reading this story

[circletimessquare]

not think that patents are utterly useless and absurd?

The "invention" in question is laughable beyond belief.

The defendent and plaintiff are mutlinational corporations. Not a little guy that needs protecting.

How do the lawyers whose lifework is this nonsense make sense of their lives? At the end of the day, in your old age, what is the value of your life's work? Did you make anything? Did you help anyone? Or did you shuffle words around a disgusting nonsensical argument foisted on some other lawyers for the sake of absurd privations? What a completely and utterly useless and despicable existence.

Why do we as a society tolerate this useless sideshow? Oh, because of all the money involved, right.

Re:Justice was fairly served

[ackthpt]

If you cannot do business honestly, don't do it at all.

Yeah, if Microsoft were held to that particular standard they would have been out of business a long time ago.

Microsoft has hardly been an innovator. I wonder who they bought the patent from.

Re:And the solution is...

[aztracker1]

Or... put the exchange client on the Play Store, and make it like a simple install, when you try to add an exchange email account... then they aren't selling the device in a way that violates said patent. MS would then be entitled to a share of what that app generated $0 (because it was free).. or MS can come up with "Outlook for Android" which may be an idea... I'd be willing to use/buy it if it were similar to webOS' mail app, which is similar to Outlook's layout.

As for the patent suit, it's a ridiculous patent, and f*ck them... it's obvious.

Re:Justice was fairly served

[TrueSpeed]

Google has a long history of trying to weasel out of agreements and payments just because they're 'Google'. In turn, Microsoft spends billions an year towards their R&D (Microsoft Research [microsoft.com]). They also work with the pioneer in the industry, Nokia, which has developed pretty much all the technology we base mobile phones today on. They deserve to be paid.

Not only do I see victory for justice, but a long term crackdown on Google's illicit business practices. It is time to step up and show Google the door. If you cannot do business honestly, don't do it at all.

Justifiably, you were marked for the troll that you are. Microsoft is a convicted monopolist (US vs Microsoft), a stealer of IP and code (Stacker, i4i), a saboteur of companies (Wordperfect/Novell) and a financial backer to SCO. They're also anti-open standards as evidenced by the people they tried to pay off to try and ratify their failed document format standard. As for their R&D - all I see from their labs are useless kinect experiments that have no practical or commercial value.

 

Patent office should be held responsible

[Grieviant]

Generating meeting requests? Seriously, how the fuck is that an innovation that someone skilled in the art would not be able to come up with? It's time the patent office was held responsible for enabling patent trolling by lowering the bar to the ground. How about a system where any patent that ends up being overturned requires the patent office to pay the associated legal fees? You'd need a 3rd party to conduct the reexaminations to avoid conflict of interest, but it might do something to stem the tide of handing out junk patents like penny candy.

Re:The march towards an US of A free of smart phon

[Splab]

Or you know, just stop selling smart phones in the US and concentrate on the rest of the world instead, where software patents aren't an issue...