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Microsoft Wins Summary Judgement in Smart Tag Case
dan2bit writes "Business Week reports that a judge in Wisconsin handed down a summary judgement today in favor of Microsoft, defending itself from a patent infringement suit brought by small fish Hyperphrase over the embedding of 'Smart Tags' in Microsoft Office. The suit also produced some amusing minutiae."
The machine just was set off by a few minutes.... yeah that's it. :)
It is very nice for the courts to be oh-so-forgiving of MS...
Karma whorin' since 1999
Legal humor. I didn' think it could get any worse than "in Soviet Russia...", but I guess it has.
I tried reading one of the "funny" rulings.. but after about a paragraph i fell asleep.
no comment
Our company has a close partnership with Microsoft and the main concern that our executive board has, is that Microsoft does not appear to take privacy concerns too seriously. We are a manufacturer of electronic devices and thereby are always under intense scrutiny by the FCC and the Homeland Security Office.
We have proposed a twenty-page plan to Microsoft in which we describe that education is the key. Get your client's permission before you take certain liberties. Their response has been positive and we look forward in adding more value in our products with this direction.
Which is nice.
No wonder there aren't any posts on this article, everyone has fallen asleep reading the long-winded crap that was linked. I saved myself with a quick click on the back button.
I'm sure that Microsoft will blame the delay on Unix Mailservers, while at the same time promote Exchange.
Pursuant to the modified scheduling order, the parties in this case had until June 25, 2003 to file summary judgment motions. Any electronic document may be e-filed until midnight on the due date. In a scandalous affront to this court's deadlines, Microsoft did not file its summary judgment motion until 12:04:27 a.m. on June 26, 2003, with some supporting documents trickling in as late as 1:11:15 a.m.
The message WAS actually sent June 23, but the exchange server was down until the 25th.
Unless the clock on the court's server was using NTP or equivalant, it probably was not completely accurate. Of course there is no mention of the clock's accuracy, but how can you make a judgement without this information?
And anyway, it's four minutes and 27 seconds, c'mon!
"Now that's...COMEDY."
--Slappy Squirrel
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Copy of article: Pursuant to the modified scheduling order, the parties in this case had until June 25, 2003 to file summary judgment motions. Any electronic document may be e-filed until midnight on the due date. In a scandalous affront to this court's deadlines, Microsoft did not file its summary judgment motion until 12:04:27 a.m. on June 26, 2003, with some supporting documents trickling in as late as 1:11:15 a.m. I don't know this personally because I was home sleeping, but that's what the court's computer docketing program says, so I'll accept..........Zzzzzzz.......Zzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzz Yawn. Not Funny
The problem is that the court has not upgraded to MS Time.
In any case, good for the court on putting the ridiculousness of the situation in writing. I mean, if the litigators are going to disrespect the court by wasting its time with ridiculous motions, they may be obligated to follow along, but they can at least put their own disrespect for the litigants in evidence.
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
The concept behind SmartTags is hardly new - one well-known (at least in hypermedia research, which happens to be my area) example would be 'generic link' found in the Microcosm open hypermedia system, which was first published in Andrew M. Fountain, Wendy Hall, Ian Heath, Hugh C. Davis: MICROCOSM: An Open Model for Hypermedia with Dynamic Linking. ECHT 1990: 298-311.
The generic link designates a link with a selection as source (this would in the simplest case be a string, but could be e.g. a image) and a specific destination. Thus, whereever the selection is encountered, there is a link to the destination. This functionality has been reimplemented a number of times in various open hypermedia systems.
--- In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro
On a more on-topic ms note, I just saw an add on
We now have to pay to use a protocol? yuwah?
Heres ya' link to it: http://m3.doubleclick.net/790463/mrs03124_ha_728x
puts ("Python r0cks\n");
five minutes and twenty-seven seconds of my life wasted reading that stuff. I move to strike Hyperphrase's lawyers in the head for being so damn annoying.
Bizarre really considering they keep losing patent cases, and tend not to be particulalrly aggressive when it comes to their own patents.
SCO files for patents on "Dumb Tags". "This will help improve our company logo and overall our company business model. We can con investors now with a click of a mouse! Because you know what?! We OWN THEM!!!!", a sco corporate fuck said today in a press release.
Notice that the court listed the names of all the lawyers on the team that submitted that motion, so that any time someone does a lexus-type search for any one of those lawyers, that filing will come up, thus embarassing them for years to come. The court put some thought into that one.
From Hyperphrase's motion to strike the summary judgment motion as untimely: Counsel used bolded italics to make their point, a clear sign of grievous iniquity by one's foe. AT LEAST THEY DIDN'T COMPAIN IN ALL CAPS!!!!! THAT REALLY WOULD HAVE GOTTEN THE JUDGE'S ATTENTION!!!!
Give serendipity a chance.
"Crabb agreed with Microsoft's argument that XML-based Smart Tags operate differently from Hyperphrase's methods and therefore aren't covered by the patents."
When this issue originally came up many people were hoping that Microsoft might argue against the legality of software patents in general. They completely side stepped the issue. What's going to happen when Ogg gets sued by Fraunhofer and company?
I tried to read the minutiae link and was thoroughly confused. Granted IANAL. Could someone who IAL please put up a post in english of what is so interesting/funny about the "minutiae".
There is something interesting about this artice/post to me though. It's the number of posts saying this is boring/confusing/not funny when just about everyone on slashdot in general is willing to give legal advice/suggestions/jokes regarding the topics at hand.
Bow to your overlords without sigs.
The enemy of the enemy is not the enemy. Software patents suck!. I hope MS wins. I also hope they get sick and tired of fighting software patent law suits and use their clout for good for a change and use it to help rid the world of software patents.
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
Yes, it can be really funny. Just the other day I overheard two lawyers talking, and it was so funny:
...and so I picked up this new client the other day. We see the judge on Tuesday.
Lawyer 1:
Lawyer 2: Did you get all the paperwork done yet?
At this point, both of them fell over laughing. It was hilarious!
I guess you had to be there.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
It's nothing but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand.
This was a chuckle and a half. I can't understand all you who think it was boring. Apparently the $5 and $10 words scared you off.
I had never seen flyspeck used as a verb before...
Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake hailed the ruling. "As an intellectual property company, we are committed to respecting the intellectual property of others, but we also invest heavily in R&D and we will defend our intellectual property when necessary,"
She continued "We be payin props ta doz silly azz mofos intalectual propertiez, but they'ze disrespectin' ours. Whats up with that shiznat dogz?"
------
If you don't stop reading this right now you owe me $1,000. Send check or money order too...
They used bold italics?!?! Screw diplomacy! This is a full-on war!
Any defeat of a patent is good news.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
Counsel used bolded italics to make their point, a clear sign of grievous iniquity by one's foe.
I love well-worded use of language. It just feels good to say well-written prose. One could divert into the technology here, but I would like to take another road.
This, to me, seems to sum-up American life. We grow up, dream big dreams, educate ourselves, strive for betterment. In the end, we spend our lives making our point through formatting. Is it just me or has America become a bunch of pussies (I'm American)?
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
At least in this particular case.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
was in the third comment:
Prepare yourself for a Nerd invasion.
We come with greasy hair, bulging bellys, unshaven faces and our virginity still intact.
Posted by: Prophet at September 25, 2003 03:28 PM
Head of the Dorks
Holy crap!
Insouciance?
Temerity?
Magnanimity?
You think this guy got 750+ on his verbal SAT or LSAT?
I think the courts just forgot to turn on their XP auto-clock update. So they were running 4 minutes fast!
If there is an important deadline, this should never become an issue. Why even risk a clock discrepency? Its 4:27s after the hours/days/weeks/whatever window they had to do it on time.
If 4:27s becomes "ok", then what about 8:54s. Its "only" 4:27s after the new ok.
Just adhere to the damn deadline.
that's a paddling
a glimpse at Hyperphase's patent looks like it was to narrowly defined to begin with. Me thinks their lawyer's should have known better.
Judge Kent is bar far one of the funniest judges on the federal bench. I strongly comment a quick read of his opinion in this case, which concerned a motion drafted in crayon.
I notice slashdotters are exercising their usual incisive wit in the comments section of the Corp Law Blog.
Keep it up, guys. If the slashdot moderators don't find you funny, I'm sure the corporate lawyers will.
-Carolyn
Like Daddy always said: if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.
How much more on topic can ya get than to link something in the actual document. :P
Would you like to download PrecisionTime from the Gator Corporation?
[Yes] [OK] [Sure]
After this remarkably long walk on a short legal pier, having received no useful guidance whatever from either party, the Court has endeavored, primarily based upon its affection for both counsel, but also out of its own sense of morbid curiosity, to resolve what it perceived to be the legal issue presented. Despite the waste of perfectly good crayon seen in both parties' briefing (and the inexplicable odor of wet dog emanating from such) the Court believes it has satisfactorily resolved this matter. Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED.
At this juncture, Plaintiff retains, albeit seemingly to his befuddlement and/or consternation, a maritime law cause of action versus his alleged Jones Act employer, Defendant Unity Marine Corporation, Inc. However, it is well known around these parts that Unity Marine's lawyer is equally likable and has been writing crisply in ink since the second grade. Some old-timers even spin yarns of an ability to type. The Court cannot speak to the veracity of such loose talk, but out of caution, the Court suggests that Plaintiff's lovable counsel had best upgrade to a nice shiny No. 2 pencil or at least sharpen what's left of the stubs of his crayons for what remains of this heart-stopping, spine-tingling action.
In either case, the Court cautions Plaintiff's counsel not to run with a sharpened writing utensil in hand -- he could put his eye out.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
Ogg is patent based, but licenesed by a different company to the Ogg guys for GPL usage. The same company [sorry, I forgot the name] also does video codex which the Ogg guys are currently working on. It really doesn't hurt the company as they have several generations newer codex already being sold. I suppose in the Codex world, everyone creates one, and the MPEG group chooses one to use and everyone else pays them. Leaving the loosers to fend for themselfs...perfect canidates for OSS!
Responsibility rules!
This is exactly why Judge Jackson tounge-lashed them to the media! He picked up on this outright condecending attitude to the Law and meant to put the hurt to them.
In my opinion, the court should have awarded the case to the other side, and made MS fight for it! Maybe even hold the Lawyers for Contempt of court. The MS lawyers gambeled on filing at the last possible second to tip the scale to their side and LOST! It's really that simple...too bad the judge won a battle because he thought it "silly", but put in another MS victory over the jucidal system.
Micro$oft (almost) always wins court cases. These days, it's not about justice. It's about how deep your pockets are and who you know to make things happen.
Who uses SmartTags, anyways? What *is* a SmartTag (Office XP user here)?
I fail to see the reason for sarcasm. Yes, it sounds like in this case, punctuality may not have mattered. But in other cases, the difference between 11:59pm and 12:01am could be billions of dollars.
When a court sets a deadline, people should be expected to stick to it. If, in this case, the court decided that it wanted to ignore its own deadline, that's its choice. But would have been perfectly acceptable and entirely reasonable for it to throw out any documents submitted even a second late.
"Any defeat of a patent is good news."
Generalizations always suck.
"Derp de derp."
Wounded though this court may be by Microsoft's four minute and twenty-seven second dereliction of duty, it will transcend the affront and forgive the tardiness. Indeed, to demonstrate the even-handedness of its magnanimity, the court will allow Hyperphrase on some future occasion in this case to e-file a motion four minutes and thirty seconds late, with supporting documents to follow up to seventy-two minutes later.
The judge is forgiving Microsoft for filing late, and is basically telling Hyperphrase to stop being a pain in the ass.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Wounded though this court may be by Microsoft's four minute and twenty-seven second dereliction of duty, it will transcend the affront and forgive the tardiness. Indeed, to demonstrate the even-handedness of its magnanimity, the court will allow Hyperphrase on some future occasion in this case to e-file a motion four minutes and thirty seconds late, with supporting documents to follow up to seventy-two minutes later.
Having spent more than that amount of time on Hyperphrase's motion, it is now time to move on to the other Gordian problems confronting this court. Plaintiff's motion to strike is denied.
"I think the U.N. is going to find that the blame lies with all the Sudanese rap music that glamorizes genocide."
I think Microsoft's approach to patents is simply acquiring a large portfolio of them they can use to defend themselves against other people filing patent claims against them. This works when cross-licensing is possible. It doesn't work if the plaintiff against them has only one patent.
If you count them, MS has paid well over 1 billion in court settlements this year alone. With the unpopularity of MS at this time I actually think that the only reason to have deep pockets is so they can pay bigger lawsuit settlements. (Not to be in MS's defence), but I think that neither MS nor any other company should pay up anytime some unknown bunch of punks claim their technology was stolen, just so they can make some quick cash. XEROX's PARC made great technology that if it wasn't for Steve Jobs and BG(stealing it) a lot of it might have never seen the light of day or probbably arrived too late. You can say whatever, but I give them props for stealing. It was a much needed thing to do. Smart tags might not be useful to you(they are optional in Office XP, you can either enable them or disable them), but they are a neat feature which you can use if you like that's all.
The phaomnneil pweor of the hmuan mnid. Fcuknig amzanig eh!
Generally speaking, any irregularity should make the court even more reluctant to grant summary judgment. The judge here granted summary judgment even after acknowledging that Microsoft was too late to file - and mocked the plaintiffs for objecting at all! I would expect that Hyperphrase is going to be filing their appeal to the district judge in the very near future.
The judge is forgiving Microsoft for filing late, and is basically telling Hyperphrase to stop being a pain in the ass.
Deadlines exist for a reason. If there weren't definite rules for when and in what order things needed to happen in litigation, the courts would be much more inefficient, and people in court would be denied their constitutional right to due process. Yeah, it's funny that Microsoft filed five minutes late - but there's a big difference between some prisoner struggling to represent himself who files five minutes late, and an enormous multinational corporation with gigantic legal resources doing the same thing. A wink and a nod is inappropriate here.
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
Yes. God forbid that the patent process is changed so that you can actually only patent significantly complex software concepts that a company or individual has spent large amounts of money or time developing. God forbid that the US could have a patent process that encourages software companies to keep spending money on R&D. No, what we all want is a system where any idea can be stolen, err, used by anyone at anytime. It is clear that intellectual property and software don't mix because everyone on slashdot says so. It is clear that this problem has no shades of gray, but is instead all or nothing.
I've run out of rhetoric. Someone tell me something else I can regurgitate verbatim.
Ogg is a container format. As far as I know, no one is seriously claiming patent protection on the idea of a container format.
Vorbis is a codec that does the same job as MP3 (only better). The Ogg guys worked very hard, with lawyers vetting the code at each stage of development, to make darn sure that no patents apply to anything in Vorbis. It would have been done a lot sooner if they hadn't had to do this.
Theora is a video codec, based on a video codec called VP3. The guys who developed VP3, On2, have patents that cover VP3, and they signed a complete and irrevokable release to allow Theora to be completely free software. I think Theora is what you were thinking of.
And the Ogg code is available under a BSD license, to speed the adoption by commercial entities. Originally they were using LGPL but enough people were worried about viral IP issues that they went to the BSD license.
<pedantic>
And it's codec or codecs, not codex. A codex is a book.
</pedantic>
Want to know more? Check out the Ogg page at xiph.org.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
...If i had mod points I'd reverse that Troll ruling. I think you hit it right on the head.
.
== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
So M$ has the courts of the United States at it knees willing to suck or blow Bill or Ballmer whenever required as long as it appears that justice is being "presented ala Survivors" certainly not servered.
Did we mention terrorism.. ok good.
The temerity of your statement leaves much to be desired.
:) Unfortunately I didn't get 750+ on SAT :(
The magnanimity of your accepting mine own proposition in insouciance will establish the temperament with which I approbate your further articulations.
You seemed to list them in least to most common usage - I've seen insouciance the least, but the others are fairly common. Especially when making fun of medieval/fantasy stories
8-PP