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Microsoft and LG Electronics Sign Linux Covenant
rs232 wrote with a PC World link discussing another alliance between Microsoft and a vendor via Linux. The vendor this time around is electronics maker LG, and marks the fifth company to license unspecified patents relating to Linux or Linux devices from the OS giant. "'This agreement is focused only on exchange of patent rights,' said David Kaefer, general manager of IP licensing at Microsoft. 'The open-source elements of the deal do utilize a covenant model similar to the Xandros and Novell deals, but this deal is most similar to recent agreements with Samsung and Fuji Xerox.' Those deals were signed this year in April and March, respectively. Both covered general access to intellectual property contained in patent portfolios and included protection for customers using Linux-based software."
From TFA: As part of the deal, Microsoft will have access to LG patents that cover computer architecture utilized in game consoles and other products and will license other LG patents that are owned by system integrator MicroConnect Group, which is based in Manchester, England.
So Microsoft 'owns' LG now, and what does LG get? A lot of hot air, it seems to me.
-- Cheers!
So which company with a monopoly similar in scope to MS's had laws enforced on them more rigorously than MS? Certainly not AT&T who had a monopoly that was both vertically and horizontally much more pervasive than MS's. Certainly not IBM who's abusive monopoly was never punished at all due to a decade of lobbying the government and outspending it in court.