Start-up Granted Injunction Against Microsoft

AustinSlacker writes " A San Jose, CA start-up, Alacritech Inc, was granted a preliminary injunction against Microsoft in a patent infringement lawsuit involving several patents related to Microsoft's implementation of "Chimney" TCP offload architecture."

Comments

Watch out Microsoft

[TimeTraveler1884]

FTA:

"Microsoft rejected licensing terms that would be acceptable to us. We were forced to sue Microsoft to stop them from continuing to infringe, and inducing others to infringe, on our intellectual property rights. We are very pleased with the Court?s decision in this matter."

What goes around comes around I say. While by no means I think everyone suing everyone is a good thing, it's refreshing to see that someone is taking on Microsoft for a change.

What is unclear to me though, is if Alacritech really the first to use this technology. They don't explicitly say this in the article. The closest thing to indicate that Microsoft tried to steal their technology is the following time line:

* 10/97--Alacritech files first provisional U.S. Patent application 60/061,809 on SLIC Technology
* 09/98--Alacritech meets with Microsoft and describes patent-pending Dynamic TCP Offload architecture in detail under a non-disclosure agreement
* 04/99--At Microsoft?s request, Alacritech delivers?detailed architecture document for integrating Alacritech SLIC Technology into Windows
* 06/99--Microsoft ceases further communications with Alacritech?and subsequently proceeds to use Alacritech SLIC Technology without a license
* 04/00--Alacritech ships first products based on SLIC Technology
* 05/01--First Alacritech patent on SLIC Technology, U.S. Patent No. 6,226,680 issued
* 07/02--Alacritech U.S. Patent No. 6,427,171 issued

According to this, Microsoft met with them, asked them for the architecture details, the ceased contact 2 months later. Interesting.

Re:Watch out Microsoft

[winkydink]

According to this, Microsoft met with them, asked them for the architecture details, the ceased contact 2 months later. Interesting.

As dubious as it sounds, it can also be a matter of, after looking at it indetail, they discovered that there was nothing special about it.

Re:Watch out Microsoft

[bill_mcgonigle]

Interesting

Hardly, unfortunately. It's the same thing they did with Burst with whom they just settled for a paltry $60M. This is becoming modus operandi for Microsoft.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft destroyed evidence in this case as well.

Re:Watch out Microsoft

[linuxtelephony]

This is hardly "becoming" MO for Microsoft -- this HAS BEEN SOP for Microsoft for years. It's a practice that is, and has been, repeated numerous times by Microsoft, and reported on as well.

The problem, is that it is cheaper for MS to continue with this practice, as well as paying off the settlements they end up having to pay, and to keep making money by selling these products.

Just like it was (a while back) cheaper for MS to pay fines and keep violating a ruling or law (and pocketing money from sales) than complying.

Re:Watch out Microsoft

[Austerity Empowers]

Or there was nothing there. I can't count how many start ups I've worked with that have shown me slideware of "patent pending" technology that was not implemented, not thought through or otherwise junk. Obviously if I'm looking to buy enough to sit through a meeting or sign an NDA, I understand what's needed and want someone to deliver. After said company then asks for an outrageous sum for their technology (usually a sum that equals or exceeds the cost for us to develop on our own) we'll tell them to shove it and develop it ourselves.

I've never had (or wanted) to work for Microsoft, so no one has ever haunted me, but I can probably see where microsoft may just be victim of the patent system they themselves are abusing.

That's even better than the david vs. goliath theme.

Patent Infringment spiderweb

[Bananatree3]

When will we finally settle all these Intelectual Property suits? My guess is probably never. Along the same lines, how could the USPO allow Microsoft to patent something that was already patented? This is screwy...

Re:I'm starting to see the software patent problem

[bonch]

Wikipedia even has an entry on the software patent debate.

The amusing section is the list of quotes for and against software patents, both lead by a Gates quote:

Quotes supporting patentability

Bill Gates (Microsoft) 2005
"...There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist... I'd be the first to say that the patent system can always be tuned...the United States has led...because we've had the best intellectual-property system."

Quotes against patentability

Bill Gates (Microsoft) 1991
Internal memo
"If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today...The solution is patenting as much as we can. A future startup with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high. Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors."

Follow the money: Alacritech vs. Broadcom?

[Wesley Felter]

Alacritech makes TCP offload engines (TOEs); so do several other companies. Notably, Broadcom has promised to commoditize TOE by including it in GigE controllers "for free". If this happens, Alacritech is out of business. These Broadcom TOEs rely on the Windows TCP Chimney API to work. If TCP Chimney has to be removed from Windows, then Alacritech is possibly the only TOE company left standing.

Re:Good, but not for the obvious reason

[Shihar]

I can't speak for software patents, but I can speak for other patents. I work in a nanotechnology startup firm with a very hot product. We have grand total of 30 or so guys working in this company, all of which are very smart people. We only really do one thing, develop technology. We develop the basic idea of a new technology, work out the initial kinks, then sell it to another company for scale up operations. Patents are all we have. Take away our patents, and we would close up shop tomorrow and let the technology sit there stagnant.

What people don't realize is that often times the people that make the technology and the people that build the technology are two very different people. 30 guys can't run a semiconductor plant building enough memory to feed the global market. We can do all the R&D though. That means that we need to show our R&D to outsiders. We need to take our awesome idea, bring it to a company, and show them enough to convince them that we are not another crackpot startup. The only way to do this is to show them a lot... enough where they get a couple years leg up on reproducing what we have. The only thing that allows us to walk into companies and show them what we have is the protection of IP laws. Without those laws, we wouldn't be able to show off the technology, much less sell it.

It is this very reason why our company won't even contemplate doing business in Korea or Taiwan. IP is the only thing we have, and those nations are not exactly know for their respect of ownership of IP. IP laws are what keep our business in existence and in the US.

I am not a programmer, so I don't know how it works with software, but I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happens in that industry too. A small company develops an impressive bit of code, and the only way they can sell it is with the protection of IP to shield them while they show it off and sell it.

IP laws are not the bane of creativity. The patent system has more then a few flukes and shitty patents handed out, but it is without a doubt needed. Kill patents and you better get cozy with universities and massive corporations, because without IP laws entrepreneurs and risk taking startups are SOL.

Wow, My mind just went *ping*...

[pla]

While reading through the posts on this topic, I noticed the same patterns I always do, how patents for the most part seem to get granted at the drop of the hat, and both big and little players can use them to very carefully target and cripple the opposition.

But then I had a thought... We should FULLY, ABSOLUTELY support the granting of insanely over-broad patents for every trivial little thing any company can think to sue over.

Why, you might ask, would I suggest such a seemingly abhorrent idea?


Simple: Because, in 20 years, it means that we'll all have the current batch of insanity to point to and excuse our "infringement" of then-current patents with "see? I implemented that, now out of patent."

"Why yes, it would appear that I violated your patent on 3rd-harmonic quantum eigenreplication, but as you can see from this now-expired-and-thus-fair-game 2002 Microsoft patent, I did nothing more than implement their 3rd claim, which covers ''the use of numbers to do stuff''. So, if we can dispense with the debate over such highly-technical language, I'd like to move for dismissal."