Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Ordered To Pay $388 Million In Patent Case
jeffmeden writes "BusinessWeek reports today that Microsoft suffered a loss in federal court Monday. The judge rendering the verdict ordered Microsoft to pay $388 Million in damages for violating a patent held by Uniloc, a California maker of software that prevents people from illegally installing software on multiple computers. Uniloc claims Microsoft's Windows XP and some Office programs infringe on a related patent they hold. It's hard to take sides on this one, but one thing is certain: should the verdict hold up, it will be heavily ironic if the extra copies of XP and Office sold due to crafty copy protection end up not being worth $388 million."
Yeah, but don't count on it.
XP has been around for a loooong time for a Microsoft OS. I'm sure they've made more than $388 million off of it... seeing as how they've been holding on to several billion in cash for several years now.
This doesn't even consider Office sales.
PC World has the figure at $38 million, which one is right? News item here: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/162832/microsoft_loses_antipiracy_patent_case.html
U+F8FF
You're missing the point, nowhere near 100% of Office or Windows sales can be attributed to the anti-piracy measures built into their activation systems. In fact I would suggest that the number is near zero as pirated copies of Windows and Office releases are available for download before the product even launches for all who care to pirate them. So now Microsoft has the cost of developing the activation system, the cost of maintaining the activation servers, the cost of implementing Genuine Advantage, and now the cost of this judgement. All because some PHB honestly believes that Microsofts paltry activation systems significantly contribute to revenue retention and growth. Much of the software industry has been infected with the notion since before the days of MS DOS despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Microsoft will find a way to pay them with copies of Windows XP.
The Admin and the Engineer
This is what they get for suing TomTom. What goes around..
I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.
This is why software patents are dreadful -- it simply rewards the guy who filed the patent application first. This is especially true with patents about simple ideas or those that are obvious to someone asked to solve a particular problem -- most software patents fall into this group.
"jury verdict"
I wonder if anyone in the jury had even the foggiest idea of what the patent was actually about?
That strikes me as a real problem in the US system. How can a jury of average people really understand the intricacies of technology? If it takes a bright person 3 or 4 years to do a degree in the patent's subject area, what chance has the jury got to understand all these things in the time of a court case?
AFAIU, in some other regions these things are at least looked at by a board of people with some "skill in the art". Surely that must be a better way.
Off topic but interesting article by Richard Dawkins on trial by jury in general:
http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Articles/1997-11-16trialbyjury.shtml
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
It's not hard to take sides at all. Software patents are bad. Period.
The only possible silver lining to this is that it helps demonstrate the badness of software patents.
(OK, seeing Microsoft discomfited is a little nice side effect, too.)
Oh come on... $388M is like a parking ticket to Microsoft. They're only appealing the decision to dissuade the hundreds of other would-be claimants from filing the thousands of pending 9+ digit suits against them. They employ more lawyers than programmers ffs!
Now more than ever, their shareholders are screaming for them to make more money, not better software! What is M$ better at, making money, or good software?
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
...die by the patents.
You only have to read the comments on Slashdot to see that a lot of people with above average technical literacy massively mis-read the scope of the claims of typical patents. And having done this, they often then pronounce the patent 'obvious' and have a lot of ideas of what could be prior art.
As you say, when an average person looks at it, they could be expected to mis-read the scope of the patent in just the same way, but then not understand the obviousness of the ideas, or know of prior art.
So a lot of it is going to come down to the skills of the lawyers on each side of the argument. I guess this is why fighting patent cases in the court can get so expensive even if the technical side of the argument is often pretty clear to the Slashdot crowd.
Does this mean I'll have to give up my Windows Genuine Advantage tool? I was enjoying the convenience of the frequent black screens, nag screens and reboots.
Microsoft are the richest corporation on the planet (to my knowledge)
Not even close. 1/2 the size of Exxon, smaller than Walmart or Procter & Gamble.
Systems and methods are provided for auditing and selectively restricting software usage based on, for example, software copy counts or execution counts. In one embodiment, the method comprises verifying whether the serial number for a software installed on a computing device corresponds to one of recognized serial numbers, and calculating a copy count (or software execution count) for the serial number. In response to the copy count exceeding a defined upper limit, a limited unlock key may be sent to the device. The limited unlock key may allow the software to be executed on the device for a defined time period, a defined number of executions, and/or with at least one feature of the software disabled.
This sounds to me like a really general way of copy protection, yep another rotten software patent in my books.
It's actually easy to take sides on this one. Software patents are WRONG, and so I'm on Microsoft's side. For once.
Microsoft are the richest corporation on the planet (to my knowledge) but their income is fading. They are losing money hand over fist for all sorts of reasons.
What are you talking about? Last year, MSFT's total revenue was $60 billion, compared to $51 billion for FY07. Gross profit was $48.8 billion versus $40.4 billion. And, net income was $17.7 billion versus $14 billion. Their income is not fading. And, they aren't losing money hand over fist.
... and that's when the C.H.U.D.'s came at me.
Your list appears to be using market cap. If you look at total equity (a better metric of current richness) the numbers are even stronger. Just as examples:
Exxon (XOM): 112.9B (Q4 09)
walmart (WMT): 65.2B (Q1 09)
Procter & Gamble (PG): 62.4B (Q4 08)
MicroSoft(MSFT): 34.4B (Q4 08)
AT&T (AT): 96.3B(Q4 08--higher equity dispite lower cap)
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): 42.5B (Q4 08-ditto)
General Electric (GE): 104.6B (Q4 08 ditto)
Numbers from Google finance, most recent Q available.
Mod points: Guaranteed to remove your sense of humor.
Side effects may include gullibility and temporary retardation