EU Warns Nokia Not To Become a Patent Troll 78
Barence writes "The vice president of the European Commission's Competition unit has warned Nokia not to become a 'patent troll'. Nokia is in the process of selling its devices business to Microsoft, giving rise to fears that the remaining part of Nokia will make more aggressive use of its patents portfolio. Vice president Joaquin Almunia said that the commission had dismissed the possibility that 'Nokia would be tempted to behave like a patent troll' when it cleared the way for Microsoft to acquire Nokia's devices division – but warned that 'if Nokia were to take illegal advantage of its patents in the future, we will open an antitrust case.' 'I sincerely hope we will not have to,' said Almunia."
Oh dear (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Oh dear (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft in general don't take too kindly to jokes and fun any more in general.
I miss the fun Microsoft, the cool developer-friendly Microsoft that were only dickish in a business sense.
Now they are just plain old dicks.
Expect Microsoft Research to get scaled back horribly in the coming years as well, they already killed some developer-related services as it is.
MSR, MSDN and all the dev-related groups were great while they lasted.
Likewise with Google and how they just killed theirs pretty much. RIP Google Labs.
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So it's perfectly normal that our development targets will from now on be decided by BD.
Signed, your CFO.
Microsoft R&D (Score:3)
On the other hand, to outsider like me, Microsoft's R&D center has over the last several years looked more to center who's role is to find occupation for big brains so they are kept in microsoft's clutch instead of going to innovate elsewhere.
Microsoft has had tons of fun tech demos. (Photosynth [wikipedia.org], for exemple, for a visually appealing one. I was under the impression that Microsoft was among the first to show software doing something to gather visual data from tons of references pictures. Microsoft Singul [wikipedia.org]
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There is evidence of the OP not being a native English speaker, so are vast hordes of other smart people, deal with it.
Re:Oh dear (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like your friend was one of the lucky ones.
Last time I got canned, I was told part of it was because of my "toxic attitude". A few days prior I had sent an email describing how to do something correctly (based on industry accepted practices) and had a conversation with the "Director" about some of the developers in India that were making a mess of several of my projects (he told me to send the email).
After they gave me my severance and I got home, I started to realize just how lucky I was. Thank god I don't work for that outfit anymore.
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My conjecture is that the industry as a whole is saturating, and people fortunate enough to have landed the higher echelons in companies are doing the animal-planet alpha-male thing and running anyone possibly more technically competent than themselves out of the company while they still have the power to do so.
I am
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Next time you're in Denver, beers are on me.
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Nokia is in the process of selling its devices business to Microsoft, giving rise to fears that the remaining part of Nokia will make more aggressive use of its patents portfolio.
RTFS. It's not the sale that's the issue, it's the part that's not being sold that's the issue.
Part of the plan (Score:2, Insightful)
I suspect that that is a part of Microsoft's business model for the future Nokia.
It already dabbles in it, but now it will be free to pursue Android manufacturers without having any product of its own which could be attacked in a MAD world.
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We wouldn't do that. Protecting people from predatory practices is the dreaded soociialsshinm.
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Typical american slasdotters (Score:5, Insightful)
European Government actually does something about patent trolls.
American Slashdotter: "Damn europeans! Always picking on our good ol hard workin corporations. Its about freedom and choice. Don't they get it."
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Americans are reactive, Europeans are proactive. We're just waiting for Nokia to actually screw up to do anything.
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Been out of country for a week. Could I have missed anything so badly?
Re:Typical american slasdotters (Score:4, Interesting)
Nokia is as far from a patent troll as you can get. Unfortunately, many just assume that because they sue everyone and their mother they're trolling. They sue everyone and their mother because they invented many crucial parts of the thing everyone and their mother owns.
Besides, since when is Nokia a "good ol hard workin [American] corporation"?
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Since very recently as you'll soon find out with a quick google..
Not sure what you're referring to, Microsoft bought the devices division of Nokia but Nokia itself - which is the part being discussed here and the part that owns all the patents - is a Finnish company.
Re:Typical american slasdotters (Score:5, Insightful)
This American Slashdotter thinks it's good. Companies and people should be regulated in proportion to the harm they are capable of doing. Monsanto, a corporation that has literally created PCBs that cover the entire planet, should be regulated to hell. The corner small businessperson shouldn't. I don't see how that is unreasonable.
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The corner small businessperson shouldn't. I don't see how that is unreasonable.
So you can have the same shrewd business practices so long as you keep some token competitor alive? Anti-competitive practices should be disallowed across the board, not just for the biggest player, it fosters a rotten culture.
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You need more coffee. Monsanto is a chemical company, not an electronics company. Why would a chemical company spread printed circuit boards?
I'm surprised you never heard of polychlorinated biphenyls (which I probably misspelled), they were used as transformer oil for almost a hundred years (that's electrical transformers, PCBs were used as coolant). My dad was a lineman, he's now dying of cancer from PCBs. Purina killed his dad, Monsanto is kiling him. Yet dufuses at slashdot scream for less regulation. Me
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Well considering you are like the third comment on this post, and there are no comments that actually say that...
I'm just going to leave this here.
[Citation Needed]
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Slashdotter: "Uninformed blanket statement which not only demonstrates a lack of knowledge about whatever I'm talking about, but also alienates those who I may have wanted to inform in the first place"
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> European Government actually does something about patent trolls.
Yeah, right. A warning carries a lot of weight.
Re:Typical american slasdotters (Score:5, Informative)
"In March 2004, the EU ordered Microsoft to pay €497 million ($794 million or £381 million)...."
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That case had nothing to do with patent trolls.
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> European Government actually does something about patent trolls. Yeah, right. A warning carries a lot of weight.
Do you mean "warnings" such as when the European Patent office revoked the Nespresso coffee pod patent?
http://www.eplawpatentblog.com/eplaw/nespresso/ [eplawpatentblog.com] http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_n/Nestle/20131012_coffee.html [domain-b.com]
Pinky swear (Score:2)
Nokia: We swears! We swears on.... on the preciousssss.
And we all know how well that went. Just wait until there'll be another, more "friendly" commissioner or until they'll "persuade" the current one.
Re:TROLLL.. TROLL! (Score:5, Informative)
> Particularly ones where they have no product that they offer,
This is exactly what is going on. What's left of Nokia won't have any manufacturing capacity or products. Another NPE.
>Motorola
Motorola makes actual products.
Being this dumb should hurt.
--
BMO
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Right - expect all of the patents we are talking about are on handsets, not their telecom gear. So, from a handset perspective, they would be a NPE. (Which I am fine with. I assume Nokia's patents are of high quality and actually mean something. Now, if the patents were overly broad and a vague statement of things that could be done - that is what I hate.)
Re:TROLLL.. TROLL! (Score:5, Insightful)
The difference is that Motorola is actually making phones and doing research while Nokia is just riding the coattails of a division that no longer exists.
Since Motorola is still in the game it still uses other people patents. If they are a dick towards others then the other patent holders will be dicks towards Motorola. There is an incentive for Motorola to play fair. Nokia does not have that restraint. They could be huge dicks and the other handset manufactures could not retaliate directly against them. Not saying that Nokia will be a dick – just that they could.
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I have a Nokia C3-00 phone that I got from Walmart. It is a pre-paid phone I got because... Well... I need a phone not a damned computer. It works very well as a phone with a far longer battery life than any of the so called smart phones out there. A single charge lasts me a week on this thing. Can you say the same about an iphone or galaxy?
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I need a phone not a damned computer.
Precisely. My Nokia is a much better phone by virtue of the fact that it doesn't try to be anything but a phone. It has one job to do, and it does it well with a much more compact and energy efficient package than a "smartphone" that is neither as good a phone as my Nokia nor as good a computer as my PC, compromising its ability to do either well by trying to be both at once.
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Well, I did the exact opposite, the only reason I finally got a mobile phone is because it was a smart phone (note 3) because it could do far more than just make phone calls (maps,camera,internet,notes,calender etc), in fact that calling ability is more about accessing and sending data than just mindlessly chattering. Hmm, it seems there is more than just one type of customer. As for Nokia one player simply needs to launch a hostile takeover as a public company by buying up shares, something M$ doesn't nee
What he actually said (Score:4, Insightful)
Isn't it too late already? (Score:1)
https://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9237869/Nokia_uses_patents_to_block_Google_VP8_video_codec [computerworld.com]
Kingmaker, self (Score:3, Interesting)
This behavior by government officials is, or should be, illegal. Patent trolls are bad, but officials threatening to withhold licensing or "review" it for legal behaviors that have nothing to do with the issue in question is a gross, kingly abuse of power.
If patent troll behavior of the remnant is illegal, you deal with that directly as a criminal issue.
Re:Kingmaker, self (Score:4, Informative)
They are reacting to the tact that Nokia seems to have divested itself of all physical products and its OS, so how what is left looks kinda like a patent holding company. Of course Nokia say they are R&D, which is fine, the EU is just reminding then that will act quicky in a market that is full of trolls and patent abusers.
Keep in mind (Score:5, Informative)
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Speaking of Finntroll (Score:1)
Here is their most popular video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGywo81G6lk [youtube.com]
and the Wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finntroll [wikipedia.org]
"Finntroll is a folk metal band from Helsinki, Finland. They combine elements of black metal and folk metal. Finntroll's lyrics are mostly in Swedish, the only exception being the song "Madon Laulu" on Visor Om Slutet. Finntroll's first singer Katla decided to use Swedish over Finnish since he was part of a Swedish-speaking minority in Finland and the sound of the langua
Nice (Score:2)
Now can we get the same in North America ?