Microsoft, Motorola Add 9 Patents To Ongoing Court Battle 61
FlorianMueller writes "Patent suits are the IT industry's new Christmas cards: Microsoft and Motorola just added new accusations to their row. Motorola filed another suit in the Western District of Wisconsin, for the first time also attacking the Kinect. Microsoft threw in seven patents in Southern Florida. Two of them cover touchscreen technologies and two allegedly read on Motorola's DVRs. At this stage of the game, 35 patents are in suit between the companies. Afraid to lose track of so much peace and harmony? There's a visualization available (detailed reference material included)."
All this because of Android? (Score:5, Insightful)
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What does Google's stock name have to do with patents? Are you really too lazy to spare the two extra keystrokes to produce "Google"? Or maybe you're just one of those people who insisted on calling SCO "SCOX" in non-market contexts (even though the stock name is longer by one letter), as if to make their opinion sound more professional.
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Actually, my use of "GOOG" was to draw attention to the fact that going public reduces the control the founders may have had over the "moral direction" at Google.
Google lost their "do no evil" standing a while ago. The question is when?
Buzz [cnn.com]?
StreetView?
Dealing with the PRC?
Google-Analytics [wikipedia.org]?
DoubleClick acquisition?
IPO?
They make great stuff, and I use plenty of their services, but I also have to be cognizant of how ubiquitous they've become and that although my trust in them may be transient, my data is perman
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SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?
Love to. Let's play Global Intellectual Property War.
WOULDN'T YOU PREFER A NICE GAME OF OPEN THE SOURCE?
2010. The beginning of the Great Patent Wars. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:2010. The beginning of the Great Patent Wars. (Score:5, Insightful)
BIG companies can't sue one another because they have "dirt" on eachother.
For the rest of us it is just another barrier to enter the market.
Re:2010. The beginning of the Great Patent Wars. (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember that snap-on case? Where the guy that developed the snap-on system did so at home, but because he worked salary at the company the company owned his idea?
Yeah... why should I invent anything unless I am hourly?
Now you got bozos in Congress that think that a flowchart should be patented, or just a method of doing something should be patented.
Holy shit, I should patent sitting down, Id be rich!
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They can't sue one another, yet they are suing one another. That's in the headline, not even the summary.
Re:2010. The beginning of the Great Patent Wars. (Score:5, Insightful)
I really do hope that the public wakes up to what is going on with patents and so-called "intellectual property" in general and the fact that it has degraded to the point that they are simply legal clubs to hit others over the head, but we are in such a state in this country. We've got a totally un-intellectual, shallow thinking populace in the U.S. that I doubt there is any way you can get the public to speak out about it.
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2010 may well mark the beginning of the "Great Patent Wars" where the patent system will begin consuming itself in mutually assured destruction.
You know, I was just thinking that. Well, as far as I'm concerned, let the MADness begin! ];)
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There are two way to achieve things (Score:2)
1: Don't pass a law
2: Pass a law and then make the law look so outrageous that it get repealed and never comes back again.
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let's take a vote?
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last time I checked it was a good 2000 years old.
Or as franklin almost said.
Two beasts and a lamb.
Method in their madness... (Score:1)
1. Start law suit;
2. Acquire patent-full dying company;
3. Add newly acquired patents to suit;
4. Recover purchase amount from competitor;
5. Profit!
6. Optionally, thumb in nose at capitalism, while claiming to be pro-competition...
Microsoft wants Android DEAD, and so does Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
In this battle, MS and Apple are ad-hoc allies. Definitely a clash of Titans, but currently, the bigger warchest is stacked against Android. Don't forget Oracle's salvo against Java in Android.
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I don't see what made you jump to this conclusion. Apple has never shown any evidence of seeking the top market-share position. If they did they would probably have more than one model of their phone or maybe sell iOS to hardware manufacturers. Hell, you can still only buy iPhones on one carrier! Apple seems to be doing what Apple has always done. Sell high-end/high-margin and make more money than higher volume, low-margin competitors.
Given Apple's history between Google and Microsoft, and Google and Micros
Re:Microsoft wants Android DEAD, and so does Apple (Score:5, Informative)
I don't see what made you jump to this conclusion.
Maybe it's my flu, but your ignorance is slightly irritating. Anyhow, here is your opportunity to educate yourself. [engadget.com] And educate yourself some more [mashable.com]
More details [phandroid.com] and a good analysis of Apple's strategy against Android. [engadget.com]
No need to thank me, but if you do, you're welcome. Always pleased to reduce ignorance.
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Apple has a patent agreement with Microsoft which prevents such litigation between the two. That doesn't mean Apple wants to see Microsoft succeed. Even if Apple would prefer Android to succeed rather than the Windows phones, it also doesn't mean that Apple won't sue Android carriers when they believe there is infringement.
Am I ignorant to the inner motivations of these company's CEO's? Yes, that's why my post was speculation. But unless you're actually Steve Jobs, you're just as ignorant. What made you bel
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I would assume the opposite. That Apple would love to see Google swipe the rug from underneath Microsoft because Google can play nice with others. Right now Apple's like European monarchs during the American Civil War: they're content to watch the north and south battle one another, they'd prefer the south to win b/c that would mean greater fragmentation and less tariffs, but they're not going to interfere because the war benefits them more than a victor on either side would.
Seems you've missed quite a bit of Apple/Google animosity lately.
Steve Jobs: "Make no mistake: Google wants to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them."
"Mr. Jobs returned to the topic of Google several times in the session and even disparaged its slogan “Don’t be evil” with an expletive, which drew thunderous applause from his underlings."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/technology/14brawl.html [nytimes.com]
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It's not necessarily Microsoft trying to kill Android. This is Microsoft punishing Motorola for not agreeing to release Windows Phone 7 devices. Microsoft can't have Linux-based OSes exist on their own, they need to either have Windows* based devices coming out from the same vendor on the same (or similar hardware), or they need (demand) patent royalties.
It's just as abusive and anti-competitive, and the only end-result of this will be a nasty web of cross-licensed patents that ensure the mobile market is r
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From what I've seen, Sun split Java up much like how Microsoft splits
How is it... (Score:3)
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I hope ALL patents are valid (Score:2)
With the war right now that almost every big company in the smart phone market is battling I hope the judges make all patent claims valid and make all the parties either stop selling their products or to pay ridiculous sums to each other. Maybe then someone will awake and see how much patents really progressing technology.
I would laughing so loud if Nokia, Motorola, Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, HTC, etc. can't sell any products in the USA anymore because all patent claims would be find valid.
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With the war right now that almost every big company in the smart phone market is battling I hope the judges make all patent claims valid and make all the parties either stop selling their products or to pay ridiculous sums to each other. Maybe then someone will awake and see how much patents really progressing technology.
I would laughing so loud if Nokia, Motorola, Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, HTC, etc. can't sell any products in the USA anymore because all patent claims would be find valid.
Nah, they'll just settle and cross-license. Companies have these spats all the time, and realize that a long drawn out battle is in neither's best interests. It does put other companies on notice, however, that they may be next; and create uncertainty about competitor's products.
Don't think of it as a war; but rather as large scale military maneuvers designed to show the other side what you can do; as well as warn smaller potential adversaries not to mess with you. No one really wants to fight as that i
Patents acquired by illegal behavior (Score:2)
Microsoft was convicted of committing monopolization in the PC arena. During the time frame of their illegal activity they surely submitted patents with ill gained money or people or knowledge. I think Motorola should bring this up in court. Its like a bank robber taking the stolen money and investing it. The bank robber gets caught and convicted... and spends some time on parole then ends up keeping all its ill gained investments along with interest. That this not right. The money and property obtain
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Microsoft is a corporation. Microsoft isn't dead yet. Two big differences... between your example and my example.
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Corporations are not fixed entities like humans. Stockholders and employees have both shifted over time. The question of how to correct a market injustice is very complicated. In non-trivial cases, there basically are not right answers.
Part of the problem is the nature of antitrust law is that all of Microsoft's actions would have been legal in different circumstances. Even if you think a tonne of stuff they did was ethically wrong, there's no legal wrong in it except that eventually they got too big to
At the end of the day (Score:1)
Download--must be a member of Facebook or Scribd (Score:2)
Western district of Wisconsin? (Score:2)
Motorola filed another suit in the Western District of Wisconsin,
How exactly does that work? Thats only 100 miles to the west of me, and I enjoy the bike paths along the Mississippi river, and the only upper midwestern cave that being the cave of the mounds, and ... uh ... thats about it for high technology in the western "half" of the state. Now don't get me wrong, Chippewa Falls was THE place to be technologically about three decades ago for obvious reasons and I want to visit the CFMIT someday, which is claimed to be better than Chicago's kid oriented museum of scie
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Western District of Wisconsin's court is in Madison (right down town) and there's plenty of tech here - if you count biotech.
Still don't know why they'd file in Wisconsin though. Motorola is in Chicago.. perhaps their law firm has an office up here?
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Cases between large companies generally can be brought in any district, because the companies have a nationwide presence. A plaintiff might pick a particular district for a variety of reasons. One consideration will be how busy the calendar is for that district. A patent case is complex, with lots of depositions, discover, rulings from the court on claims interpretation, and other things before you even got to actually holding a trial. You want a district that isn't so busy that it will take forever for you
My side... Their side... What side? (Score:2)
More silly proof that patent laws are broken, the folks at the patent office are overworked, and/or frequently the obvious is patented, re-patented, and the maybe patented by someone for later legal-lotto filings.
When something is very old and always proven to be broken, maybe it cannot be fixed, maybe we all need to buy into a new economic model for patents, copyrights.... FORGET IT! Corporate welfare/socialism works better with a total economic FUBAR for US and EU.
Some would say the "RU Boss Tweed" or "CN
Uhh... source? (Score:2)
I assume this was announced somewhere, and not just on the submitter's blog (where there are, oddly, no links to any sources of any kind)?
A Battle to the Death Among These Companies? (Score:2)
Circuit diagram. (Score:1)
Mobile Patent Theme Song (Score:2)
I will defer to another posting [slashdot.org] of mine.