Nortel Patents Go To Apple, Microsoft, Sony and Others 121
tcr writes "A consortium that includes Apple, Microsoft, RIM and Sony has been successful in its bid for the Nortel patent portfolio. The winning bid was $4.5 billion. TechCrunch predicts this could result in a slew of lawsuits directed at Android, but also suggests that the deal will likely receive scrutiny from the U.S. courts."
Patents should be abolished (Score:4, Informative)
Patents are just ways for large companies to choke off competitors by getting a state granted monopoly on an idea.
There are billions of dollars out there being wasted on patent litigation. That's money that could go into hiring more people and developing new products.
I'm against monopoly. Why isn't everybody else?
Re:Consortium patents (Score:3, Informative)
Only company from the list that I worry about is Apple. They're really been left and right everyone about patent issues. Microsoft, not so much, unless some patent troll has attacked them first. Same goes for RIM. Sony is bad in other fronts, they're not really suing for patent issues. But Apple has been handling their patent related issues really dirty, dumping thousand+ page sues, trying to enforce ban on competitor products and in their developer agreement for iPhone/iPad they require all software developers to give away their ideas to Apple when submitting their application - after which they can decide if to accept or reject the app and maybe implement it themselves. Like when Apple ripped off an wireless sync app [slashdot.org] made by a one guy.
based on what?
Probably the worst thing Microsoft is currently doing is threatening and then shaking down Android device manufacturers( http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/27/microsoft-inks-android-patent-deal-with-itronix-causes-more-hea/ [engadget.com]), it's also hard to ignore: