A Courtroom Victory For Microsoft In Cellphone-Related Patent Suit

Mark Wilson writes: Microsoft has been cleared of patent infringement by the US International Trade Commission. The case dates back to 2007 when InterDigital Inc claimed Microsoft infringed its patents, and there were calls for a ban on the import of handsets. InterDigital Inc has been battling in court for eight years, initially trying to claim royalties on phones made by Nokia, now transferred to Microsoft. As well as blocking the call for an import ban, the ITC stated that Microsoft did not infringe patents relating to the way mobiles make calls. In short Microsoft is in the clear and InterDigital's rights have not been violated.

Not on the order of a Sophie's Choice, but...

[rmdingler]

It's like some of our recent national election choices...

Do you root for Microsoft or the patent troll?

Re:

[Gr8Apes]

Some things are pure evil - you always root against the patent troll.

Re:

[gnasher719]

In Google/Motorola vs. Microsoft, I surely didn't root for the patent troll, but for Microsoft.

Re:

[Barbecue911]

Don't forget the infamous Apple vs. Microsoft [wikipedia.org] copyright infringement case, Microsoft did us a world of good. Imagine where Gnome, KDE, Ubuntu, maybe even Android would be today if Apple had won: goodbye graphical user interface, hello smooth-talking HAL? But until the processing power caught up, the command prompt would rule.

Two patent trolls went to court....

[zwede]

Two patent trolls went to court and the bigger one defeated the smaller one.

Re:Two patent trolls went to court....

[Calydor]

At least Microsoft produces stuff based on (a portion of) their patents.

A patent troll owns a patent, produces nothing, and stifles production from other companies in hopes of getting money that way.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You're forgetting the trolling Microsoft started long before this to gain a share of Android handset profits ...

Re:

[tomhath]

they changed their business model to one of licensing their patented inventions,

That's the definition of a patent troll.

Re:

[abinayavijayaram]

The Court, thankfully, didn't go quite as far as it could have gone in saying ... All because it insists that validity and infringement are two entirely separate issues. .... http://www.besanttechnologies.... [besanttechnologies.com]