Motorola Countersues Microsoft Over 16 Patents 62
FlorianMueller writes "As if there weren't already enough patent suits related to smartphone technologies, Motorola just announced its widely anticipated countersuit against Microsoft. Its subsidiary Motorola Mobility filed complaints with two US District Courts (Southern District of Florida and Western District of Wisconsin). Motorola already litigates with Apple in those and other courts. According to Motorola, the patents relate to technologies in the fields of operating systems, video codecs, email, instant messaging, object-oriented software architectures, WiFi, and graphical passwords. Motorola claims Windows, the Live messenger, Windows Phone, Outlook and other Microsoft products infringe. Motorola's action is no surprise given that all of the companies sued over patent infringement by Android — with the exception of Google — have already countersued."
Pew Pew Pew... (Score:5, Insightful)
Its like a giant space battle.. but involving black suits, lots of money and lawyers.
Here's hoping none of them are taken seriously in the courts and all these silly, strategic patents are called what they are, invalid and worthless. (And hope that the technology, on whomevers side doesn't suffer)
One can hope right?
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"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." -Oscar Wilde
Re:Pew Pew Pew... (Score:5, Funny)
Aye! The patent Armageddon our forefathers have predicted is finally coming to pass. Take heart, brothers and sisters, and let the mighty beasts wail and crash each other asunder, for though there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth, aye, and many a lost source of income, we will be there at the end, to wage battle with the last, greatest Patent Troll left standing and umm... sic the anti-trust hounds upon it? Again? Oh, wait...
Re:Pew Pew Pew... (Score:4, Insightful)
So, do you have particular insight into these patents to back your claim that they are invalid and worthless?
Or are you one of those people who really thinks patents shouldn't exist, but won't just admit it?
Or perhaps you think you get to stipulate the terms of how a patent must be used for it to be valid and have worth, even though the system of patent laws intentionally doesn't do so?
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Patent War I (Score:3, Interesting)
More than hope. I really do think this is the beginning of the end for software patents.
You have these multibillion dollar companies with gigantic patent portfolios. The implied threat is there. "Don't sue us, or you'll get it in return." And the big players don't sue each other over trivial things that infringe because of the threat of mutually assured destruction. That's always been the rule, until recently.
Gigantic forces in reserve, a tangled web of alliances, then a single shot fired [wikipedia.org] is what s
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And yet, WWI didn't end guns and bombs; it merely killed a lot of people. So you draw an analogy to this conflict, where the "weapons" are patents, and think the battle will put an end to the weapon?
This isn't the first, or the last, time that a group of large companies get into a mess where each alleges the other is infringing patents, and it's not the first, or the last, where all probably have some valid claims. If the MAD analogies that keep flying around were valid, and with the first shot fired, you
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Granted it's not a perfect analogy; I didn't use a car.
But I still think there are enough points in common to draw a parallel. A tangled web of alliances, a stockpiling of resources, and itchy trigger fingers.
But you're right - patents aren't bombs. That's why I predict a different outcome. How many patents are some of these companies sitting on? IBM is granted about 4000 per year. [theregister.co.uk] And now we're seeing squabbles involving a few dozen.
This can't do anything but escalate.
The next idea will be "Th
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These companies have done nothing but move their standoff from a theoretical issue hidden in their file drawers to a practical matter in court filings. I predit they will reach an agreement where all are licensed to use all of the technology involved, maybe with payments from one to another if there seems to be an imbalance in overall contribution to the IP pool, and that will be that.
I hear this argument often, but I don't quite understand it. Consider this.
Patents are public. Therefore, before you sue someone over your patents, you can - and should! - check if they own any which they may counter-sue you on.
Furthermore, before you even sue, you'll probably reach out privately first and make your offer, be it royalties or cross-licensing agreement or whatever. If they feel it's the best they can hope for, they'll take it. We've seen that in practice in Microsoft vs HTC. And if they feel
This is going to be an interesting one (Score:5, Interesting)
While not covered well in the press, like IXI, Motorola is also demanding that Microsoft stop shipping "infringing" products, though in this case they speak of virtually the entire Microsoft product line. This can become very interesting. I think Microsoft picked on the wrong company to try and bully and run it's protection racket on this time. They seem to have inherited SCO's footgun...
Re:This is going to be an interesting one (Score:5, Interesting)
While not covered well in the press, like IXI, Motorola is also demanding that Microsoft stop shipping "infringing" products, though in this case they speak of virtually the entire Microsoft product line. This can become very interesting. I think Microsoft picked on the wrong company to try and bully and run it's protection racket on this time. They seem to have inherited SCO's footgun...
It will be an interesting fight. Don't forget that RIM sued Motorola, Motorola sued back, and they settled the suits out of court confidentially but with a couple pieces of information released to the public:
The financial terms of the Agreement include an up-front payment and ongoing royalties to Motorola. Further terms and conditions of the Agreement are confidential. [motorola.com]
So yes, it is possible that Microsoft picked the wrong company to bully. RIM certainly did. Motorola has been doing high-tech stuff for a very long time...
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From an outsider's perspective, I saw the MS lawsuit as a thinly disguised attempt to try fight dirty against Android. While some might think Apple is the biggest competitor in the mobile space, it's really Android. Just like the computer market, MS sells their OS primarily through their partners. Unlike the computer market, their partners have a suitable alternative in Android. Android is not completely free (there are things the handset makers agree to in order to use it) but probably much cheaper tha
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Android is not completely free (there are things the handset makers agree to in order to use it) but probably much cheaper than WM6 was.
They don't have to agree to anything to use Android at all. If they want to bundle Google software with it and have that device access the Android Market, THEN they need to agree to certain things.
The Samsung Fascinate had some Google products removed (search and maps) by default and Google STILL allowed them access to everything.
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While not covered well in the press, like IXI, Motorola is also demanding that Microsoft stop shipping "infringing" products, though in this case they speak of virtually the entire Microsoft product line. This can become very interesting.
That's a standard request, and is unlikely to be granted. Because monetary damages are adequate for patent infringement, and because Microsoft isn't a tiny company with no liquid assets, a preliminary injunction is almost certain to be denied.
Enough Already (Score:3, Interesting)
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Until they come out of said meeting with a massive patent sharing agreement that does little but guarantee that there will never be a new competitor in the market ever again.
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I, for one, welcome our new monopolistic mega-corporate overlords! ~
No surprises (Score:4, Insightful)
All this patent litigation is going to result in a patent pool, locking new competition out of the smart phone market for 20 years. Hope the tech companies enjoy their little circle-jerk. All it's highlighting to the rest of the world is the stupidity of some of the patents involved.
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I'll make the popcorn (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a Mutually Assured Destruction fight, but unlike others with this strategy I'm not going to be hit.
You would have thought that these Fortune 500 companies would figure out that the only winning move is not to play.
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Patently False (Score:2)
Microsoft just patented patent lawsuit process, so that will stop all these pesky lawsuits.
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new and useful
Well, they meet all the requirements except maybe one or two...
So a guy walks into a cell phone store ... (Score:3, Funny)
Customer: "I would like to buy a cell phone."
Seller: "Sure! What are you looking for?"
Customer: "I would like to buy a cell phone from a company that is neither suing nor being sued by other cell phone cell companies.
Seller: "Sorry, all serious cell phone manufacturers are either suing, or being sued by other serious cell phone manufacturers."
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"Serious Cell Phone Manafacturer" Sagem is not. My current model is a Sagem, therefore I feel qualified to speak on this matter
Lawsuit Untanglement (Score:3, Funny)
With Motorola, Mircosoft, Nokia, and Apple having launched various lawsuits and counter-lawsuits against each other, I think that untangling this mess in the proper order is quickly starting to become an NP-complete problem.
Re:Lawsuit Untanglement (Score:4, Informative)
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Haha, that's hilarious! And the Lawsuit Network was even larger than I could imagine!
This is MAD I tell you. (Score:5, Funny)
They can't sue us because we'll sue them in retaliation? When has a lawyer EVER said "no, you can't sue them, that'd be stupid"?
Southern District of FL (Score:2)
Re:Southern District of FL (Score:4, Insightful)
I think that if you don't make products you take your patent troll business to Texas. Evidently if you actually use your patents for making things you have to go elsewhere.
Re:Southern District of FL (Score:4, Informative)
Anyone know why Motorola chose this court??
Motorola has a very large presence in Fort Lauderdale Florida.
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Motorola has a large plant in Plantation, Florida, a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale, where a lot of the engineering for portable products (including iDEN phones) is done and which also has a corporate IP office. It may be that they saw advantage in having the inventors and relevant attorneys in close proximity to the court.
Judges should game the system back (Score:5, Insightful)
They'll never resolve this tangled mess (Score:1)
Let the big boys go at it... (Score:1)
For once , a few of the big boys are at odds with each other, which can only mean profit, for the consumer. As it stands, each time the big ones go at it, they end up going into bloodlusts, that provoke better sales on items that normally are overpriced, and will tend to bring down the overall price point the companies tend to look for....
M$ vp1>Our 7 phone is not doing well
M$ vp2>Might be becuase google is coming out with android and apple is too
M$ vp1>We also have those nasty patents cases coming
Rates of Innovation (Score:1)
The cell phone industry (Score:1)
en.swpat.org (Score:2)
Here's some background on this and other phone cases:
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Microsoft_v._Motorola_(2010,_USA) [swpat.org]
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Phone_patent_litigation [swpat.org]
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Patent_non-aggression_pacts [swpat.org]
Besides phones being a growth market, this problem is aggravated by the fact that a bunch of big hardware companies are suddenly in the same market as a bunch of big software companies. Unlike their usual competitors, these buy guys don't yet have patent non-aggression pacts, so they just go t
Nuclear patent armageddon (Score:2)
Well, we all knew that patents have been used in business as a nuclear deterrent against being sued for patent infringement. But now that someone has broken their "cold war" stance, we are seeing a nuclear crossfire that is just about to get interesting.
After we see all this going on, perhaps we will see some of the big players come out against software patents to end the chaos. It's going to become very expensive... even for the big players.
Just remember, it's your taxpayer money burning (Score:2, Interesting)
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way to take a brave stance on behalf of corporations Mr. AC. Go to galt? Is that like a tourist destination? Some new name for heck?
It's about damn time... (Score:3, Interesting)
Finally, they've decided to use these patents for their intended purpose, to stifle innovation!
If only the PTOs publicly advertised patents as munitions against competition instead of insurance for inventors, it would simplify the whole process...
Judge: Everyone, roll for initiative. Ok, Motorola, your OOP patent does 2D8 x 10 million dollars of damage, and has a litigation speed of 8. Microsoft, what's your armor class?
What goes around... ? (Score:1)
Is this where Bill Gates has to hand back all his ill gotten gains and call it a wrap, move back into a garage? One that opens automatically when the owner approaches the door?
Sorry, Motorola (Score:2)
Microsoft already patented the 4th least significant bit, thereby blocking your ability to file suit over 16 patents. Just drop one and you'll be ok.
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5th! duh
So MAD breaks finally down. (Score:2)