Analyzing Microsoft's Linux Lawsuit

jammag writes "Open source advocate Bruce Perens takes a close look at Microsoft's lawsuit against TomTom (discussed here last week), which involves an implementation of the Linux kernel, and calls it essentially a paper tiger. He notes: 'the technologies claimed in the 8 patents involved are so old and obvious that it's fair to say they have a high "Duh!" factor. There's an anti-trust angle to this suit that could blow up in Microsoft's face. And there's a high probability that some or all of the patents involved are invalid, due to recent court decisions.' Although the legal expense for TomTom to defend itself in court could be astronomical — meaning they may be forced to settle — in Perens' view Microsoft is aware its case is weak, yet hopes for a PR victory at limited cost." And reader nerdyH adds speculation from Open Innovation Network CEO Keith Bergelt that Redmond's action could be retaliation for TomTom's spurning a Microsoft acquisition bid in 2006.

Comments

Re:question

[omar.sahal]

considering Bruce Perens consults on avoiding licence issues for a living we can take his words seriously.
I know this is a bit vague, but as we already have initiatives for collecting of patents could there be a pool of cash collected from donors (as in small amounts of monthly donations from any interested individuals). Any company could then fight patent trolls by then putting in a nominal amount into the fund and getting support from the fund to protect its self against bodies trying to sue it. The threat of having to settle despite a week claim would then disappear, and Linux would be helped.

EFF as a friend of the court?

[shentino]

This case of david versus goliath sounds worthy of the EFF's attention...or soemthing.

Tomtom needs help, not because he's right, but because he's an ally.

MS is up to no good here, as usual.

1) If MS wins, FAT implementations will get smacked down quickly due to the effect of a cascading precedent. This includes linux mounting a floppy disk OR a flash drive OR a camera OR... need I go on?
2) If MS forces a favorable settlement, the chill factor will freeze out competitors
3) If MS settles out, we get nothing
4) If MS loses the case, we have victory.

Anyone who can call MS out as bullshit and back it up, get in touch with TomTom AND his lawyers post haste.

Re:question

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Very good point. At the time of the Novell - Microsoft pact, I was arguing with Bruce here on Slashdot over how evil/ not evil it was and I generally sided with Microsoft. Well, not anymore. I've replaced Suse with another distro that does not have a pact with Microsoft, and am no longer convinced that microsoft is a gentle giant. It is clear that they are abusing their monopoly in this act. And I was a defender of Microsoft (at times) in the anti trust case in the late 90's. This is much much worse in my eyes than bundling IE with windows ever was.