Microsoft Assembles Patent Arsenal for Longhorn

stock writes "The heat is on. Inside eweek.com are some remarkable articles: 'You see, Microsoft is busy patenting everything it can lay its hands on with all three. In fact, Microsoft is now building up its patent arsenal, applying for a rather amazing 10 patents a day. The idea isn't to ensure that Microsoft makes a fair profit from its patents; it's to make sure that no one else can write fully compatible software.' An older article mentions some other patents."

Comments

Why not

[TwistedSpring]

Simply patent the act of filing a patent.

Microsoft are allowed to file patents on their technology just like anyone else. Patents are a Good Thing -- they share knowledge in detail with anyone who wants to read them, but people cannot use that information to create a product for monetary gain. The patents Microsoft have filed seem legitimate. Why does the open source community hate patents so much? I think that if the open source community came up with something new, they would hopefully patent it just like Microsoft are doing. If they didn't patent it, then they're fools because someone else will. Just because you have a huge open source cabal doesn't mean you can decide that "patents are a bad thing, we're not going to play that game". The world doesn't work like that: you can't boycott the patents system by Not Filing A Patent. Patents inspire competition and are one of the primary reasons that America is where it is today. I am not an American, nor am I a lawyer.

Re:the evidence that the day is coming is mounting

[Anonymous Coward]

> Well at the moment they are about to bend SCO over a court bench

Using a LWZ ("GIF") patent, which IBM has ignored up to this point. A fact underreported on /. and a pretty disgusting move.

Re:the evidence that the day is coming is mounting

[Master of Transhuman]

> BTW, Why is Microsoft's solution to design
> problems "more code" instead of "less
> complexity"? They must have skipped that day in
> design school.

Exactly. They hire 24-year-olds with no fraggin' clue about system design or how people use computers in the Real World - then make then Product Managers. As Hannibal said, "Second-raters, the lot."

You know why Microsoft must eventually fail? Because they're morons. And the chief moron is Bill Gates. Oh, sure, he taught himself contract law - whoop-de-doo.